Sharp has brought a legal action against Hisense, which has a contract to use the Sharp brand for TVs in the US, claiming that the company has broken FCC regulations on emissions and FTC rules on stating picture sizes. The filed papers use the phrase “shoddily manufactured”. The deal between Sharp and Hisense was for five years and was signed in 2015 before Foxconn bought Sharp. Of course, Hisense has refuted the claims and said that it looked forward to meeting Sharp in court.
Analyst Comment
Of course, in Europe, Sharp has taken control of the brand by buying the licensee, UMC, but in the US, Hisense has always had a different point of view and is a substantial TV market player, in its own right. However, in Europe, average TV sizes are smaller than in the US, where sizes are bigger and the ownership of the Sakai G10, which is optimised to larger panels is of maximum benefit to Foxconn. Personally, I’m a great believer in ‘Win/win’ deals, but it’s hard to see how this dispute can ever be resolved with both sides at least satisfied, even if not happy. (BR)
