Philips, Samsung named in CRT-cartel suit
By Steven Kim 
posted Dec 1st 2007 8:02PM
posted Dec 1st 2007 8:02PM
A whole bevy of companies have been named in a suit alleging that a CRT-cartel has been price-fixing the good-old tube. Companies claimed to be "in on the fix" include Philips, LG, Tatung, Matsushita, Samsung and Toshiba. The suit states that these companies banded together in the face of (precipitously) dropping demand for CRT-based sets to, you guessed it, keep prices artificially high. The plaintiff's lawyer cites "...unnatural and sustained price stability, as well as inexplicable increases in the prices of CRTs" as evidence of the shady goings-on stretching back to 1998. Ten years seems like a stretch to us, and we haven't exactly been keeping up with CRT prices; but we'll see how this one settles out.[Image courtesy of TheHarrowGroup]
Buggy whips are pretty pricey, too. And have you tried to get an 8-track lately? Or vacuum tubes? Creating an industry group ("cartel") to support a dying product line for those customers who have odd needs for CRTs is an act of goodwill, not avarice. The probably lost money on the deal. It's hard to believe that there was enough money on the table to interest the poorest crook.
I just don't get why the cartel would help, so I don't know how to accept the argument as plausible. Keeping prices high would make it easier for your customers to chose a competing set type. Driving your customers away can't help sales. Collusion only really helps when there aren't viable alternatives.
What I find hilarious, is that most of the companies seized on new technology so that they could distance themselves from (at the time) CRT monsters like Sony. And now they're being sued... for trying to hold on to CRT technology? You never can tell, I guess.