Case Settled: HannStar to pay $30M to end LCD price fixing suit

Now that’s an expensive mistake, boys and girls. Don’t let your babies grow up to be LCD manufacturer presidents, to paraphrase a popular country song (and mangle it badly).

Taiwan-based HannStar Display agreed this week to pay a huge $30 million fine for its role in a large LCD price fixing scheme. In a disturbing trend, this makes the seventh company to “plead or agree to plead guilty as a result of the department’s investigation into the LCD industry.” Very nasty stuff, if you ask us, though we’re pretty sure all sorts of businesses do this kind of thing every day, though not as blatantly it appears.

All together, the US Department of Justice has seen some $890 million paid out and 17 executives charged in total, with HannStar in particular being singled out for violating the Sherman Act for its actions from September 2001 to January 2006, which is a very long time to have a scheme like this running and expect not to get caught.

Hopefully this marks the end of this sad chapter in HDTV history.