14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that not all companies found to have been involved in the LCD price fixing cartel intend to appeal the decision, as Chimei InnoLux supposedly means to pay the monetary penalty and be done with it.
As end-users may or may not have heard, six LCD makers were found by the European Commission to have been involved in illegal price-fixing activities.
By activities, one means the so-called 'crystal meetings' that AU Optronics, Samsung, LG, Chimei InnoLux, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display participated in during the 2001-2006 period.
Said meetings were meant to set the minimum prices for their LCD products as a means to generally boost profits.
After Samsung reported the cartel, an investigation was carried out, which ended with the decision to fine those involved for a total of 649 million Euro.
As one would expect, not all of those involved are willing to pay the fine, as was revealed not long after the verdict was given, when AU Optronics started considering an appeal.
On the other hand, there are also some that seem to want this whole issue to be cleared up as soon as possible, and Chimei InnoLux may be one of them.
As Digitmes has it, the outfit seems to be leaning towards paying the 300 million Euro ($396.3 million) even though it will leave it in the red.
CMI posted a net profit of NT$9.29 billion for the first three quarters of 2010, which is the equivalent of $307 million.
This made most market watchers expect the outfit to return profit for the whole year, but the NT$7.1 billion set aside for potential fines are not enough to cover the 300 million Euro fine.
As such, Chimei InnoLux is expected to return a loss for 2010. What remains to be seen is how the other involved parties intend to approach the ruling.