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In a fruitless bid to slow the rate of price declines, LG Display, Sharp and lesser known Chunghwa Picture Tubes of Taiwan have all pleaded guilty to charges of price fixing in the LCD display panel market in front of the US Justice Department.

The three companies will have to pay a combined fine of $585million, with LG forking out the most in an individual fine of $400million, the second largest ever issued by the Justice Department's antitrust division.

The American based investigation involved enforcement officers from Europe and Asia, revealing the global scale of the scandal, and concluded that companies including Apple, Dell and Motorola had all been affected and could follow up with private law suits.

The companies are also likely to face private class-action suits from consumers in the European, Japanese and South Korean markets, as there is evidence some paid inflated prices for their displays.

www.nytimes.com