It was four years ago when Sanyo and LG Chem pleaded guilty for criminal price-fixing. In October 2013, Sanyo settled for USD $10.7 million and LG for USD $1.1 million in fines for conspiring to keep the price of lithium-ion batteries high.
Panasonic and Samsung were also implicated, with the charge of conspiring to limit their production capacities, limit supply, and unfairly drive up the price of their lithium-ion batteries.
Then, last September Sony pleaded guilty and was fined USD $19 million.
Now, three more companies have followed suit and admitted their mistake – Toshiba, Hitachi, and Maxell. They will have to pay notably less, at a combined USD $7.45 million settlement.
Lithium-ion price fixing is not new, and the court has found the aforementioned companies to have been participating in price fixing for more than 10 years.
“We’re very pleased with the settlements and very pleased with the court’s orders granting preliminary approval” Rick Saveri, attorney, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Lithium-ion batteries are a commodity and are becoming increasingly essential to the everyday life of people everywhere. From mobile computing to electric vehicles, powerful market forces are pushing prices lower. Such actions will undoubtedly make price-fixing more difficult for lithium-ion battery manufacturers, and help to continue to drive the cost per kilowatt hour down.
