November 12, 2008 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

WASHINGTON – Three leading electronics manufacturers – LG Display Co. Ltd., Sharp Corp. and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. – have agreed to plead guilty and pay a total of $585 million in criminal fines for their roles in conspiracies to fix prices in the sale of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, the Department of Justice announced. Of the $585 million in fines, LG will pay $400 million, the second highest criminal fine ever imposed by the Department’s Antitrust Division.

Today’s charges were filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The companies have agreed to cooperate with the Department’s ongoing antitrust investigation.

Thin-Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels are used in computer monitors and notebooks, televisions, mobile phones, and other electronic devices. In 2006, the worldwide market for TFT-LCD panels was approximately $70 billion. Companies directly affected by the LCD price-fixing conspiracies are some of the largest computer, television and cellular telephone manufacturers in the world, including Apple, Dell and Motorola.

“Today’s charges and criminal fines emphasize the commitment of the Department of Justice to crack down on international cartels,” said Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey.

LG Display Co. Ltd, a South Korean corporation, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, LG Display America Inc., a California company (LG), agreed to plead guilty to participating in a conspiracy from September 2001 to June 2006 to fix the price of TFT-LCD panels sold worldwide. During the conspiracy, LG Display Co. Ltd. was known as LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. (a joint venture between LG Electronics and Philips Electronics) and LG Display America Inc. was known as LG.Philips LCD America Inc.

Sharp Corp., a Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer, has agreed to pay a $120 million fine for its participation in separate conspiracies to fix the price of TFT-LCD panels sold to Dell Inc. from April 2001 to December 2006 for use in computer monitors and laptops; to Motorola Inc. from fall 2005 to the middle of 2006 for use in Razr mobile phones; and to Apple Computer Inc. from September 2005 to December 2006 for use in iPod portable music players.

Chunghwa, a Taiwanese TFT-LCD panel manufacturer, has agreed to pay a $65 million fine for its participation with LG and other unnamed co-conspirators in a conspiracy from September 2001 to December 2006 to fix the price of TFT-LCD panels sold worldwide.

“These price-fixing conspiracies affected millions of American consumers who use computers, cell phones and numerous other household electronics every day,” said Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division. “These convictions, and the significant fines they carry, should send a clear message that the Antitrust Division will vigorously investigate and prosecute illegal cartels, regardless of where they are located.”

LG and Chunghwa are charged with carrying out the conspiracy by:

* Participating in meetings, conversations, and communications in Taiwan, Korea and the United States to discuss the prices of TFT-LCD panels;
* Agreeing during those meetings, conversations and communications to charge prices of TFT-LCD panels at certain pre-determined levels;
* Issuing price quotations in accordance with the agreements reached; and
* Exchanging information on sales of TFT-LCD panels, for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices.

Sharp is charged with participating in three separate conspiracies, to fix the price of TFT-LCD panels sold to Dell, Motorola and Apple by:

* Participating in bilateral meetings, conversations, and communications in Japan and the United States to discuss the prices of TFT-LCD panels to be sold to Dell, Apple and Motorola;
* Agreeing during those bilateral meetings, conversations and communications to charge prices of TFT-LCD panels at certain pre-determined levels to Dell, Apple and Motorola;
* Issuing price quotations in accordance with the agreements reached; and
* Exchanging information on sales of TFT-LCD panels to be sold to Dell, Apple and Motorola, for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices.

LG, Sharp and Chunghwa are each charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act. Each violation carries a maximum fine of $100 million for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

LG Display Co. Ltd., based in Seoul, South Korea, reported $15.3 billion in revenue for 2007.

Sharp, based in Osaka, Japan, reported $34.2 billion in revenues for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, including $6.8 billion in revenue from LCD sales.

Chunghwa, based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Republic of China, reported $4.8 billion in revenue for 2007.

These pleas are the result of a joint investigation by the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Field Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in San Francisco. The plea agreements are subject to court approval.

Anyone with information concerning illegal conduct in the TFT-LCD industry is urged to call the San Francisco Field Office of the Antitrust Division at 415-436-6660.

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November 9, 2008 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Murrieta, California - On 11/5/2008 at 1:50 am, Officers from the Murrieta Police Department responded to the 28000 block of Calle Del Lago regarding a call of domestic violence in progress. The domestic violence altercation at the location was deemed to be non criminal and no charges will be filed.

However, during the preliminary investigation, officers found items inside the residence related to the making of fictitious currency. Specifically, fictitious $100 bills were found, as well as the instruments used to make the bills. The resident, Daniel Fitzgerald (29 years old), was arrested and transported to the Murrieta Police Department for questioning.

Investigation revealed several businesses in Murrieta, over the course of the last two weeks, have been victimized by the passing of these fictitious $100 bills. Those businesses have been contacted and police reports have been taken. Any businesses in Murrieta that have seen this activity and have not reported it to the Police Department are encouraged to call Murrieta P.D. at 696-3615. Fitzgerald is currently in custody at the Southwest Jail.


In what may or may not be a related indecent, on 11-08-08, at 10:35 pm, officers were dispatched to Chili’s Restaurant located at 41070 California Oaks Road in reference to a male adult who had just paid for his takeout order with a counterfeit $100 bill. When officers arrived, the suspect fled westbound on foot, jumped a fence and ran across the 15 freeway. Responding officers quickly set up a perimeter and located the suspect hiding in bushes adjacent to an industrial building. Officers additionally located a counterfeit $100 bill concealed in a drain basin next to where they found the suspect.

The suspect was identified as 37-year-old Andrew Van Dam. A records check of Van Dam revealed he was currently on probation for Domestic Violence related charges.

Witnesses from Chili’s Restaurant positively identified Van Dam as the suspect who had used the counterfeit $100 bill to pay for his takeout order. Van Dam was placed under arrest and booked for 459 PC (Burglary), 476 PC (Passing a Fictitious Bill), and 1203.2 PC (Violation of Probation) at the Southwest Detention Center.

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October 21, 2008 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Proposal Could Result in Greater Access to Technology and Lower Costs

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced today that it will not challenge a proposal by a consortium of companies to jointly license patents needed to comply with standards for ultra high frequency radio frequency identification (UHF RFID) technology, which has a variety of uses including airline baggage tracking, retail product inventory and ticketing for events. The Department said that the proposal could result in cost savings and greater access to the technology, ultimately benefiting competition and consumers.

UHF RFID is a type of automatic identification and data capture technology used to identify objects automatically by using radio frequency waves to transmit and read information stored in an integrated circuit or chip on a label.


The Department’s position was stated in a business review letter from Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division, to counsel for the RFID Consortium LLC. The RFID Consortium is made up of a group of companies that hold at least one essential UHF RFID patent. In its letter, the Department said that the proposed arrangement appears reasonably likely to yield pro-competitive benefits as it limits the ability of the consortium’s members to use their intellectual property rights to block or delay the implementation of the UHF RFID standards and affords savings in transaction costs for licensors and licensees.

“The proposed patent-licensing arrangement has the potential to speed up the commercialization of UHF RFID technology, to the benefit of competition and consumers, without harming competition or impeding innovation,” said Barnett.

Under the consortium’s proposal, an independent licensing agent will offer nonexclusive licenses to the consortium’s portfolio of essential UHF RFID patents on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. An independent expert reviews the patents to ensure that the portfolio does not combine patents that would otherwise compete with each other. The owners of the patents will retain the rights to license their patents independently.

In addition, the consortium intends to implement a number of safeguards that appear reasonably tailored to minimize the risk of restricting competition between producers of UHF RFID products and the dampening of incentives to innovate, the Department said.

Under the Department’s business review procedure, an organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust Division and receive a statement as to whether the Division will challenge the action under the antitrust laws.

A file containing the business review request and the Department’s response may be examined in the Antitrust Documents Group of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Suite 1024, Liberty Square, 450 5th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20530. After a 30-day waiting period, the documents supporting the business review will be added to the file, unless a basis for their exclusion for reasons of confidentiality has been established under the Business Review Procedure.

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