LCD panel maker AUO Corp (友達光電) might file an appeal or take other measures to fight a recent court ruling in South Korea that ordered the company and its Taiwanese rival HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) to pay compensation for alleged price-fixing.
In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday, AUO said that it would either appeal or take other “appropriate actions” against the ruling.
AUO would also make appropriate provisions for the possible compensation, which could hit 29.1 billion won (US$22.53 million) plus interest, the company said, adding that the ruling is unlikely to affect its operations.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
HannStar, which has been ordered to pay 3.79 billion won plus interest, said it had not yet received any court documents, but when it does, it would file an appeal.
With interest included, the compensation could rise to 53.5 billion won for AUO and 6.97 billion won for HannStar, according to news reports from South Korea.
Citing unnamed sources, South Korean news media on Monday said that AUO and HannStar were recently ordered by the Seoul Central District Court to pay damages to LG Electronics Inc for fixing the prices of TFT-LCD panels.
AUO and other flat-panel manufacturers and distributors in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea were accused by the US Department of Justice in the late 2000s of colluding to fix prices of TFT-LCD panels during secret bilateral and multilateral meetings dubbed the “crystal meetings” from 2001 to 2006.
AUO and its US unit, AU Optronics Corp America, were found guilty of the price-fixing conspiracy in March 2012.
Eight other companies pleaded guilty and have paid more than US$1.39 billion in criminal fines since 2008.
LG Electronics initially sued five Taiwanese companies in a civil case, following the criminal case brought by the US Department of Justice, but dropped the lawsuit against the three companies other than AUO and HannStar.
According to news reports from South Korea, the court dismissed the Taiwanese companies’ arguments that the lawsuit should be heard in their country of origin, ruling that the case and the parties involved have a practical connection with South Korea.
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