LCD Makers Slapped with Price-Fixing Suit

Hey, remember those reports from not so long ago that said that LCD prices were going up, defying the rest of the electronics universe and decades of history that has shown that, in the world of electronics, prices always march down down down? Well, now we know why. LCD manufacturers are now under investigation for price fixing.

Pretty much everyone that makes flat panels, with the exception of Sony and Matsushita, is being probed in a multinational investigation that spans from the United States to Japan to Korea.

Ars Technica notes that this is hardly the first time price-fixing allegations have hit the electronics industry. Samsung paid a $300 million fine for fixing RAM prices only a few years ago and is currently under investigation for artificially inflating RAM prices again. Dozens of other cases are on record.

Meanwhile, those claims of LCD prices actually going up never quite panned out, so if Samsung and friends were really trying to keep prices high, it seems to have backfired. In fact, Sony now says that LCD prices are falling so fast that the deep price cuts are going to hurt future innovation by eating away profits. Anyone got a tissue for Sony?