Brazil: CADE fines Samsung, LG, Philips and Toshiba over TV manufacturing cartel

Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) has revealed the discovery of two international cartels that have affected the television market in Brazil for more than a decade. According to information revealed by the regulator, the cartel would have been active between 1995 and 2007, when there was still an important production of televisions and monitors using cathode ray tubes, and would involve the manufacturers Samsung, LG, Philips and Toshiba.

“The cartels were characterized by the regular exchange of sensitive commercial information, price-fixing, market distribution and restrictions on production,” CADE said in its statement.

CADE emphasizes that the cartels would have caused damages to the country, damaging companies that would have imported the products of the manufacturers in question, as well as Brazilian consumers who would have bought television monitors or computers with cathode ray tube technology.

The decision condemns the companies Toshiba and MT Picture Display, as well as an individual, as responsible for the international cartel of CPTs/Color Picture Tubes, incurring fines totalling 4.9 million Reals (US $ 1.2 million).
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