The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has dismissed an appeal from Innolux against the $288 million fine imposed on the company for taking part in the LCD price fixing scandal.
Innolux was originally fined $300 million but this was reduced to $288 million in February 2014 by the General Court. The fine took into account the company’s direct sales of LCDs to third-party customers located in the European Economic Area (EEA), as well as the value of LCD panels incorporated into other products, such as PC monitors, which Innolux sold in Europe.
The company challenged this ruling, claiming that the EEA should not have included internal sales of panels, even though finished products were eventually sold in the EEA, as the original sale was made outside the EEA. However, the ECJ ruled that the affects of the manipulated price of the incorporated LCD panels were nevertheless liable to affect competition in the EEA. Excluding these sales would minimise the economic significance of the infringement committed and lead to the imposition of a fine that bears no resemblance to the actual impact of the conduct.
