Hitachi and LG joint venture admits price fixing

A JOINT VENTURE between Hitachi and LG has pleaded guilty to price fixing.

According to the Guardian, Hitachi-LG Data Storage pleaded guilty to 15 criminal counts in connection with a long-running probe of price fixing in the sale of optical disk drives to companies including Dell, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft.

The company was sentenced to pay a $21.1m fine at a hearing in San Francisco yesterday.

The joint venture is the first company charged by US prosecutors in the investigation. In 2009, firms including Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba revealed that they had received subpoenas from the Justice Department regarding the investigation of sales of disk drives, such as CD, DVD and Blu-ray players.

Apparently, the joint venture will assist with the ongoing investigation, earning its relatively low fine.

It is not the first time that Hitachi-LG Data Storage has landed in hot water. The firm admitted conspiring with others to eliminate competition or fix prices for optical drives sold to computer giants Dell, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard dating back to 2004.

It was also charged with participating in a scheme to defraud HP during a procurement in 2009. µ