Optical disk drive manufacturers may receive a fine from the European Union as a result of a 3 year old price fixing complaint. The European Commission accused 13 companies of colluding to rig bids for at least 5 year on optical disk drives sold to PC and server makers, in an antitrust complaint sent three years ago.
Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS), Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology (TSST) and Sony-Optiarc are among the companies that face fines, according to sources of Bloomberg. Philips has said it was granted immunity from any fines in the case, which is conditional on continued cooperation with regulators.
Samsung Electronics and Toshiba sold their TSST joint venture to Optis Co. last year and Samsung has stated it's no longer part of the investigation, Toshiba didn't want to comment.
European Union regulators may issue the penalties before they break off for the summer break at the end of July, Bloomberg's report added.
In a similar U.S. investigation, Hitachi-LG agreed to plead guilty and pay a $21.1 million fine for conspiring with other companies from June 2004 through September 2009 to rig bids and fix prices for optical drives sold to Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft.
