Sharp, Hitachi under scrutiny for alleged DS LCD price-fixing

When certain well-known companies are accused of price-fixing, you know it’s fertile soil for a scandal to take root. In the case of Sharp Corporation and Hitachi Ltd., the two companies were probed by Japan’s antitrust regulator under suspicion of having price-fixed LCD screens of Nintendo’s DS portable. Probe the full article after the jump for more details.

It seems that Japan’s Fair Trade Commission has been busy lately – busy probing Sharp Corporation and Hitachi Ltd. That is. The reason? The two companies have come under the antitrust regulator’s suspicion of having price-fixed LCD screens of Nintendo’s DS portable game machine.

The Fair Trade Commission even searched the offices of Sharp and Hitachi, reportedly without saving where it obtained the information regarding the supposed price-fixing. Spokesmen for the two companies declined to comment on this, except to say that their companies were under investigation.

Should Sharp and Hitachi be found guilty of the charges leveled against them, they can be fined as much as 10% of the profits that they would have gained through illegal means, to say nothing of the shame that awaits them in the public eye.