Oct 24, 2019 13:00:00

HP won the trial that appealed the price manipulation of the optical drive, and damages of about 19 billion yen were recognized

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In 2013, Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced seven optical drive suppliers, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, NEC, Panasonic, TEAC, and KUTA. '. Among them, HP won the lawsuit with Quanta that led to a trial jury, and damages of $ 176 million (about 19 billion yen) were recognized.

pacer_hp_quanta_verdict.pdf
(PDF file) https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/10/23/pacer_hp_quanta_verdict.pdf

HP scores $ 176m win in CD-ROM drive price-fix case – after one biz emailed rival with 'Price Fixing' as the subject • The Register
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/23/hp_pricefixing_case/

Originally HP had an online bidding form that suppliers could use to get the right price for optical drives such as CD-ROM, Blu-ray, and DVD. However, HP claims that the supplier used this platform to control prices. The trial lasted for several years, but many suppliers responded to private price talks to show that HP's claims were correct.

On the other hand, Quanta extended to a trial jury, and as a result, Quanta was ordered to pay damages of approximately 19 billion yen to HP. In the trial, the email that the employee of Quanta sent to his competitor Philips was actually using the word “price manipulation” as evidence. In addition to this, HP lawyers have told the jury many emails indicating that Quanta is raising prices on the online platform. The HP lawyer told the jury that “HP employees were not familiar with this scheme, and this was a“ betrayal ”by the supplier.”

In fact, HP noticed supplier conspiracy only after the US Department of Justice turned to price manipulation for these companies. In 2011, a similar case occurred between Hitachi and LG. At this time, a lawyer in the position of the Ministry of Justice was also active in the HP trial.

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According to lawyers, Quanta employees have called more than 150 calls in 6 months to rival company employees who use the HP auction site, and this call record is also shown as evidence of the trial. It was. In addition, he claimed that he could send a message to overseas suppliers that `` It is better to follow the rules when doing business in the U.S. by doubling damage compensation for Quanta '' is.

In recent years, there have been many trials regarding price manipulation in the electronic parts market. In the initial complaint, HP also said that many partners are taking anti-competitive actions, including price manipulation of electronic parts used on computers such as DRAM, TFT-LCD, and CRT sold by HP. did.