James Delahunty
11 Nov 2007 17:34
A subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which produces the Panasonic brand of consumer electronics products, has been searched by Japanese antitrust officials for evidence that it participated in a scheme to fix prices for cathode-ray tubes. Demand for traditional CRT televisions is dropping due to the increasing consumer interest in flat-panel televisions but CRT sales remain strong in developing countries.
Japan's Fair Trade Commission searched the Matsushita subsidiary MT Picture Display Co. Thursday, according to Matsushita spokesman Akira Kadota. He refused to comment on the reason the search was conducted. MT Picture Display, along with several other manufacturers in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, is expected of fixing prices according to a report by Nikkei.
The daily business paper said that antitrust officials in Japan, South Korea, the United States and the European Union are conducting investigations into the matter. Several large CE manufacturers, including Samsung SDI, are suspected of forming a cartel in 2005 to keep the price of CRTs from falling.
Source:
Yahoo (AP)