Toshiba Corp. conspired with competitors to fix the price of display screens and is liable for $87 million in damages, a U.S. jury ruled Tuesday.
The 10-member jury, after deliberating in federal court in San Francisco for less than two days, found the company liable to manufacturers that used the displays for $17 million in damages and liable to consumers, who purchased finished products, for $70 million. Under antitrust law, defendants can be assessed damages of three times the overcharge, or $261 million in the jury's decision.
Toshiba was accused of meeting with competitors in hotel rooms to set prices for thin-film-transistor liquid crystal displays, or LCD panels, from 1999 to 2006. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of U.S. makers of digital signs, home-theater equipment, laptop computers and office networks that bought the panels.