Toshiba Corp. conspired with rivals to fix the price of display screens, forcing businesses and consumers to pay more for televisions and laptop computers, a U.S. jury was told at the start of an antitrust trial.
Attorneys for U.S. makers of digital signs, home theater equipment and office networks that bought panels told the 10 jurors in federal court in San Francisco on Monday that Toshiba met with competitors and agreed to set prices for thin-film transistor liquid crystal display, or LCD, panels from 1999 to 2006.
"This is an antitrust case that involves a conspiracy that started on a golf course in 1998," Bruce Simon, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said during opening statements in the 5-year-old lawsuit. "Toshiba was there."