14 DAY TRIAL // Being one of the companies involved in a legal scandal regarding alleged LCD display price fixing, Toshiba has decided to settle matters out of court, rather than keep dragging this matter out.
Toshiba is not in the same hot water as LG, whose price fixing settlement of $380 million, or €310 million, was the biggest in US history.
In fact, Toshiba has gotten off easy. After discussions with all the plaintiffs that lodged complaints against it, it will pay the sum of $30 million, or 23 million Euro, give or take.
This is much less than the fine of $87 million that the company got slapped with back in July (which, apparently, it got out of).
Toshiba was originally going to file for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and an appeal if it came to it, but in the end, it decided that settling things with just over a third of the fine was better than dragging the whole mess out.
Thus, the company continues to maintain its stance that it did not, in fact, commit any wrongdoing.
“Toshiba admits no wrongdoing as part of this settlement, and it continues to maintain that it did not engage in illegal activity,” the company states.
One should note that the agreement still has to be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco).
Worst-case scenario, the court may decide that this is not, in fact, a viable legal avenue for Toshiba to dodge its fine.
Nevertheless, since there is little chance of Toshiba having made this settlement without researching what it could or could not do, the odds of such a negative outcome are slim.
We'll be back with updates on the LCD price fixing debacle as soon as we hear anything more. Most of the charges have been dropped and/or settled already, but some loose ends still need to be tied up.