The European Commission on Wednesday imposed a 649-million-euro (860-million-dollar) antitrust fine on a cartel of manufacturers of liquid crystal display (LCD) screens for computers and televisions, DPA reports.
EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Samsung and LG of Korea, AU Optronics, Chimei InnoLux, Chungwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display Corporation were found to have colluded from 2001 to 2006 to fix prices and exchange industrial information.
Samsung was rewarded for blowing the whistle on the illegal arrangement with a total exemption from fines, while LG was hit with a 215-million-euro bill.
Chimei was ordered to pay 300 million euros, AU Optronics 116.8, Chunghwa 9 and HannStar 8.1, Almunia said.
Two companies - unnamed to protect their commercial interests - asked for a discount claiming they were in financial dire straits, but EU officials "concluded that neither request was justified," Almunia said.
The commissioner stressed that non-EU companies are subject to EU antitrust rules if they sell their products in the bloc, even if their cartel meetings take place outside of the EU's jurisdiction.
Wednesday's decision was the seventh cartel fine the EU executive imposed in 2010, bringing the year's total to over 3 billion euros.
EU rules prohibit price-fixing and other market manipulation. The EU's executive arm, has a long record of breaking up cartels, issuing fines worth billions of dollars in the process.