Fight Continues in CRT Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit

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Both the plaintiffs and defendants in the long-running CRT price-fixing class action lawsuit multidistrict litigation are seeking clarity, with each side filing motions for summary judgment asking a federal judge to decide on the years-old conflict.

The class action lawsuit group was first centralized in 2007 and alleged that both direct purchases of cathode ray tube products such as computer monitors as well as indirect purchasers, such as people who bought PCs with both a display and central processing unit, paid a premium due to anticompetitive practices of various display manufacturers including Samsung and LG Electronics.

Samsung already decided to settle claims regarding its role in the CRT price-fixing class action lawsuit for $33 million. Other named defendants argue that there are still significant issues regarding the plaintiffs’ claims. In a flurry of motions for summary judgment, electronics makers like Hitachi and Toshiba allege that the claims are time-barred based on when the companies left the market.

Most resolve around the 2007 filing of the class action lawsuits, where the statute of limitations on antitrust actions is four years. Many display makers are making claims that they either got out of the business of selling CRT displays or were otherwise not in contact with other manufacturers by 2003.

The direct purchaser plaintiffs, for their part, seek Class certification. They argue that the class action lawsuit comes as the result of “one of the most well-documented global price-fixing conspiracies in history. It has been the subject of numerous enforcement proceedings by domestic and foreign competition authorities.”

Various CRT display makers and their employees have either been indicted by the Department of Justice or been fined by the European Commission, among others. In documents pertaining to one company president, the Justice Department, the “conspiracy harmed countless Americans who purchased computers and televisions using cathode ray tubes sold at fixed prices.”

Other price-fixing class action lawsuits have hit the computer market, including certain types of memory, all focusing on the relative inelasticity of demand that allegedly enables suppliers to set prices regardless of actual market forces.

LG Electronics and Chunghwa Picture Tubes have reached a class action settlement with indirect purchasers over claims they conspired to fix the prices of cathode ray tube products. No money is available from that class action settlement yet as the attorneys for the proposed Class are continuing to pursue the litigation in hopes of obtaining settlements with or judgments against the remaining defendants.

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The direct purchasers are represented by Guido Saveri, R. Alexander Saveri, Geoffrey C. Rushing and Travis L Manfredi of Saveri & Saveri Inc.

The CRT Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 3:07-cv-05944, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Hitachi have agreed to pay a total of $563 million to indirect purchasers under the terms of a proposed class action settlement, according to court documents filed May 29, 2015 in California federal court.

UPDATE 2: On March 11, 2020, a $542 million settlement deal was reached after customers claimed tech companies colluded to fix prices of cathode ray tubes.