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How stupid can you get. A bunch of whinging consumers in the USA are now trying to stop Sharp from producing Sony LCD panels. They claim that it will artificially result in higher prices, less innovation and fewer jobs.
It appears that the consumers who are from California have not heard that manufacturers cannot keep up with demand for flat panel screens and that there will be a 10% shortfall in product this year due to demandhe consumers have sued the makers of liquid-crystal-display televisions for alleged price- fixing asked a judge today to block Sharp from entering into a joint-venture agreement with Sony according to Bloomberg.
In February Sony cut a $2.9 billion dollar deal for Sharp to make some of their Bravia LCD panels and the stupidity of the action in the USA is that they also cut a multi billion dollar deal with Samsung and several other Taiwanese manufacturers to make panels.
“Combinations between and among LCD manufacturers will result in artificially higher prices, less innovation and fewer jobs,” Joseph M. Alioto, a lawyer for the consumers, said in an e-mailed statement. “The people of the United States have the right to expect that the prices they pay for the products they purchase are the result of unfettered competition rather than combination and monopoly.”
Alioto filed his motion today in federal court in San Francisco. In April 2007, 20 antitrust cases against the LCD makers were consolidated in the federal court in San Francisco.
Sony and Sharp said in February that they expected to set up the venture in April 2009 and begin operations at the factory that fiscal year. The so-called 10th-generation plant, the most advanced in the industry, will produce screens measuring as big as 60 inches diagonally.
The case is In Re TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation, 07cv1827, MDL No. 1827, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
Maybe no one told them about Pioneer using Panasonic to manufacture plasma panels or Toshiba using Sharp. In fact the outsourcing of panel product is creating jobs and lowering the price of panels.
