Price Fixing - Other Countries

Other Countries

In countries other than the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and within the European Union, price-fixing is not usually illegal and is often practiced. When the agreement to control price is sanctioned by a multilateral treaty or is entered by sovereign nations as opposed to individual firms, the cartel may be protected from lawsuits and criminal antitrust prosecution. This explains, for example, why OPEC, the global petroleum cartel, has not been prosecuted or successfully sued under U.S. antitrust law. International airline tickets have their prices fixed by agreement with the IATA, a practice for which there is a specific exemption in antitrust law.

Under the EU commission's leniency programme, whistleblowing firms that co-operate with the anti-trust authority see their prospective penalties either wiped out or reduced.

In October 2005, the Korean company Samsung pleaded guilty to conspiring with other companies, including Infineon and Hynix Semiconductor, to fix the price of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. Samsung was the third company to be charged in connection with the international cartel and was fined $300 million, the second largest antitrust penalty in US history.

In October 2004, four executives from Infineon, a German chip maker, received reduced sentences of 4 to 6 months in federal prison and $250,000 in fines after agreeing to aid the U.S. Department of Justice with their ongoing investigation of the conspiracy.

In late 2005/early 2006, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic came forward about their involvement in large price-fixing schemes for cargo and passenger surcharges in which 21 airlines were involved since 2000 (amongst which were British Airways, Korean Air, and Air France-KLM). U.S. Department of Justice fined the airlines a total of $1.7 billion, charged 19 executives with wrongdoing and four received prison terms. No major US airlines were involved.

In 2006, the government of France fined 13 perfume brands and three vendors for price collusion between 1997 and 2000. The brands include L'Oréal (4.1mil euro), Pacific Creation Perfumes (90,000 euro), Chanel, LVMH's Sephora (9.4mil euro) and Hutchison Whampoa's Marionnaud (12.8mil euro). International price fixing by private entities can be prosecuted under the antitrust laws of many countries. Examples of prosecuted international cartels are those that controlled the prices and output of lysine, citric acid, graphite electrodes, and bulk vitamins.

In 2008, LG Display Co., Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Sharp Corp. have agreed to plead guilty and pay $585 million in criminal fines for conspiring to fix prices of liquid crystal display panels.

South Korea–based LG Display will pay $400 million, the second-highest criminal fine that the department's antitrust division has ever imposed. Chunghwa will pay $65 million for conspiring with LG Display and other unnamed companies and Sharp will pay $120 million, according to the Justice Department.

In December 2008, the New Zealand Commerce Commission filed legal proceedings against 13 airlines in the New Zealand High Court. According to the Commission, the carriers "colluded to raise the price of by imposing fuel charges for more than seven years". The Commission noted that it might involve up to 60 airlines.