Hsuan Bin Chen, Price Fixing, California 2006

Crime Pays, But Not for AU Optronics

AU Optronics Corporation, a Taiwan-based liquid crystal display (LCD) producer, has been sentenced to pay a hefty fine for its role in a five-year conspiracy to fix the prices of thin-film transistor LCD panels sold worldwide.

The $500 million fine, imposed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, matches the largest fine ever imposed against a company for violating U.S. antitrust laws. The company and its American subsidiary, AU Optronics Corporation America, were also placed on probation for three years and required to adopt an antitrust compliance program.

Former AU Optronics Corporation president Hsuan Bin Chen and executive vice president Hui Hsiung were sentenced to serve three years in prison and to pay a $200,000 criminal fine each. The two executives were found guilty of fixing prices during monthly meetings held in secret locations around Taiwan, including hotel conference rooms, karaoke bars, and tea rooms.

The conspiracy, which lasted from September 14, 2001, to December 1, 2006, affected some of the largest computer manufacturers in the world, including Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Apple. The LCD price-fixing conspiracy resulted in every family, school, business, charity, and government agency that bought notebook computers, computer monitors, and LCD televisions during the conspiracy period paying more for these products.

“The Antitrust Division will continue to pursue vigorously international cartels that target American consumers and rob them of their hard-earned money,” said Scott D. Hammond, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program.

Along with the criminal fine, AU Optronics Corporation was also ordered to print advertisements in three major trade publications in the United States and Taiwan acknowledging its convictions and punishments and the remedial steps it has taken as a result of its conviction.

The companies and former executives were found guilty on March 13, 2012, following an eight-week trial. The indictment charged that AU Optronics Corporation participated in the worldwide price-fixing conspiracy from September 14, 2001, to December 1, 2006, and that its subsidiary joined the conspiracy as early as spring 2003.

RELATED: $500M LCD Price Fixing Scandal: AU Optronics Cops Plea

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