EU Charges Philips, Others with Price-fixing

European Union antitrust regulators have charged Royal Philips Electronics NV (Public, AMS:PHIA) and others with running a cartel to fix the price of cathode ray tubes used in televisions and computer monitors, the EU executive and Philips said Thursday. The European Commission did not name any of the companies it had charged. It said companies can defend themselves in writing and at an oral hearing before it decides to levy fines which can run as high as up to 10 percent of annual global turnover for each year the cartel operated.

Philips said in a statement that it had received the charges and "intends to continue assisting the regulatory authorities in these investigations." The EU has fined companies involved in cartels billions of euros (dollars) in recent years, saying its crackdown on illegal agreements that limit competition has saved European consumers over euro7.6 billion from 2005 to 2007.

Philips Electronics NV (PHIA) is one of the largest electronics companies in the world. In 2007, its sales were $26.79b. The company employs 123,800 people in more than 60 countries. Philips is organized in a number of sectors: Philips Consumer Lifestyle (formerly Philips Consumer Electronics and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care), Philips Lighting and Philips Healthcare (formerly Philips Medical Systems).