By Lorraine Luk
TAIPEI--Taiwan's flat panel maker AU Optronics Corp. (2409.TW,
AUO) said Friday it will book a US$223 million additional provision
for a price-fixing case in the third quarter while it is appealing
the guilty verdict by a U.S. court.
The statement came after a U.S. federal judge ordered
Taiwan-based AU Optronics to pay US$500 million for participating
in a conspiracy to fix prices on liquid-crystal-display panels.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston also sentenced H.B. Chen and
Hui Hsiung--senior AU Optronics executives during the period of the
conspiracy--to three years in prison. They were each ordered to pay
fines of US$200,000.
The penalties are among the stiffest on record for antitrust
cases, but they fell short of the unprecedented remedies the U.S.
Justice Department had requested.
The department won a conviction against AU Optronics and the
executives in March, and it sought a fine of $1 billion against the
company--twice the largest single fine it has ever collected in an
antitrust case. It also asked Judge Illston to impose 10-year
prison terms on the executives, far beyond the four-year jail
sentence that stands as the current record for a violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act.
Prosecutors argued the proposed penalties were needed to deter
large, highly-profitable price-fixing conspiracies in the
future.
The case was a rare event in the antitrust world, as most
companies never challenge government price-fixing allegations at
trial because of the potentially staggering fines involved.
Write to Lorraine Luk at lorraine.luk@dowjones.com
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