Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Jury finds AUO manager not guilty in LCD price fixing case, (Oct 14, 2013)

By Jeffrey May, J.D.

One of the six AU Optronics Corporation executives charged along with the company in June 2010 with participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels was acquitted last week. On October 10, a jury in the federal district court in San Francisco entered a not guilty verdict against Borlong Bai, aka Richard Bai (U.S. v. Bai, Criminal No. 09-cr-110-SI).

As a result, three AUO employees have been convicted and three have been acquitted in the government’s long-running price fixing action against the Taiwan-based LCD producer. TFT-LCD panels are used in computer monitors and notebooks, televisions, mobile phones and other electronic devices.

AUO, its U.S. subsidiary, and two high-level executives—Hsuan Bin Chen and Hui Hsiung—were convicted of conspiring to fix prices in March 2012 after an eight-week trial. That jury also found two lower-level AUO employees—Lai-Juh Chen and Tsannrong Lee—not guilty. A mistrial was declared against another employee—Shiu Lung “Steven” Leung. Leung was subsequently found guilty on retrial.

A record-tying $500 million fine was imposed on AUO, and the convicted executives were fined and sentenced to serve three-year prison terms.

Bai, who was AUO’s senior manager and director of the Notebook Display Business Group, had been a fugitive at the time of the original trial. He later appeared in the district court and pleaded not guilty. Bai’s trial began on September 23. It had been alleged that Bai participated in the conspiracy from March 20, 2003, to December 1, 2006.

Companies: AU Optronics Corp.

Attorneys: Niall Edmund Lynch for U.S. Department of Justice. Brian H. Getz (Law Offices of Brian H. Getz) for Borlong Bai.

News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews CaliforniaNews