AU Optronics – which makes liquid crystal display screens -- was found guilty by a jury last March of colluding to set prices with its rivals.
Within the last few days, in addition to levying the fine, the court also sentenced two leading company figures – vice chairman and former chief executive HB Chen and senior executive Hui Hsiung –to three-year prison terms each and individual fines of $200,000.

Karaoke meetings

According to a report in the Bloomberg news agency’s Businessweek web site, senior figures at the company met secretly with other manufacturers between 2001 and 2006 to cut a deal in a bid to quash an oversupply in the market that had slashed prices by 40 per cent.
The report says the executives rendezvoused in a variety of hotels, tea rooms and karaoke bars. A Reuters news agency report says US Justice Department prosecutors maintained that more than 60 meetings took place to hammer out the price collusion.

Shares leap

Despite equalling a 1999 penalty levied against Swiss pharmaceutical company F Hoffmann-La Roche, the fine for the Taiwanese was only half of what prosecutors had demanded. Reuters reports that on the basis of the pain being less than anticipated, AU Optronics shares jumped by 5 per cent in value.
According to Bloomberg, the two convicted executives have been ordered to surrender themselves to the authorities on 30 November to begin serving their sentences.