AT&T sues LCD manufacturers over price fixing

LG, Samsung, Chunghua and AU Optronics are named in the suit

AT&T is to sue a number of leading LCD manufacturers over the extra costs it incurred for the screens used on 300 million handsets.

The case came about after several manufacturers pleaded guilty in a price-fixing case brought by the US government.

The AT&T action, filed today in a San Francisco court, alleges that LG, Samsung, Chunghua, AU Optronics and others "formed an international cartel illegally to restrict competition" to raise the price of LCD products from 1 January 1996 to 11 December 2006.

AT&T said that it had suffered damage because it could not pass on the increased costs it incurred to consumers, since the handsets were sold at a subsidy anyway.

The news is bad for LCD manufacturers caught up in the price-fixing scandal. If AT&T's suit is successful, other areas of the computer industry may take similar action and companies and consumers could launch a class-action suit.