Post Time：Sep 23,2011Classify:Industry NewsView：410
SEOUL: South Korea's anti-monopoly watchdog said Thursday it is investigating 10 LCD makers in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan for allegedly operating a cartel.
A spokesman for the Fair Trade Commission confirmed the disclosure made by FTC chief Kim Dong-Soo in an interview with the JoongAng Daily newspaper.
"We plan to complete our probe by the end of this year," Kim told the paper.
He said the watchdog was also conducting a similar probe into five TV tube glass makers from South Korea and Japan, but declined to give further details.
Kim did not give the names of the LCD (liquid crystal display) companies, which are suspected of maintaining market share by avoiding competition.
But the watchdog said last month that top LCD maker Samsung Electronics, domestic rival LG Display and Chimei Innolux of Taiwan had violated anti-competitive practices by colluding to fix prices.
Last December the European Commission imposed a total of US$860 million in fines on South Korean and Taiwanese electronics firms for fixing prices of LCD flat screens for Europe's TVs and computers.
The fines were slapped on South Korea's LG Display and Taiwan's AU Optronics, Chimei Innolux Corporation, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display Corporation.
LG and Chunghwa, along with Japanese firm Sharp, were fined a total of US$585 million in 2008 in the United States.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.comAuthor: shangyi
