WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $21.1 million criminal fine for participating in conspiracies to rig bids and fix prices for optical disk drives.
A felony charge filed in federal court in San Francisco alleges Hitachi-LG Data Storage conspired to eliminate competition over optical disk drives sold to Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. The court must approve the company's agreement to plead guilty.
Often incorporated into personal computers and gaming consoles, optical disk drives use laser light or electromagnetic waves to read and write data.
This is the first case to emerge from the government's investigation of the optical disk drive industry.
The company is jointly owned by Hitachi Ltd., of Japan, and LG Electronics Inc., of South Korea.