Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: EU Court of Justice affirms €210M fine in LCD panel suit, (Apr 23, 2015)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

The Court of Justice of the European Union affirmed a €210 million fine imposed against LG Display Co. Ltd. and LG Display Taiwan Co. Ltd. for their participation in a cartel in the market for liquid display panels (LCD panels). The European Commission originally imposed a €215 million fine against LG Display in 2010, but it was reduced by the General Court in 2014, due to an error in the sales included in the fine calculation (LG Display Co. Ltd. v. European Commission, Case C-227/14 P).

The General Court reduced the €215 million fine because the EC erred in including the month of January 2006 when calculating the average value of sales. LG Display had partial immunity for January 2006 for providing information concerning the cartel.

Nevertheless, LG Display appealed to the Court of Justice, arguing that the General Court erred in confirming that the EC could consider the sales of LCD panels that LG Display made to its parent companies. LG Display asserted that the sales could not have been affected by the cartel because those sales were made at a preferential price, given the terms of contracts linking LG Display to its parent companies as part of their joint venture agreement.

The Court of Justice rejected LG Display’s arguments, finding that the sales to LG Display’s parent companies must be treated as external sales rather than internal sales. Since there was no single undertaking between LG Display and its parent companies, there was no vertically-integrated undertaking, the court reasoned.

Next, the court found that the sales of LCD panels made to LG Display’s parent companies were properly included to calculate the amount of the fine. “[T]he value of sales to be taken into account in order to calculate fines should not be restricted solely to transactions which are in fact affected by the cartel at issue,” the court stated. It noted that exclusion of the sales made to LG Display’s parent companies would allow LG Display to avoid a fine “proportionate to its importance on the product market to which the infringement relates.”

With regard to LG Display’s claim of partial immunity for the year 2005, the court determined that such immunity could not be granted because the information LG Display provided was already known to the EC. It did not matter that the EC’s decision relied on evidence provided by LG Display more frequently than material provided by another company. The General Court’s order reducing the €215 million fine to €210 million was therefore affirmed.

Companies: LG Display Co. Ltd; LG Display Taiwan Co. Ltd

News: Antitrust