Competition record
Panasonic
Deep profile · 1 linked library matter
Panasonic is the Japanese electronics company, long known as Matsushita, that made televisions and the cathode-ray tubes inside sets and monitors. The 2012 Commission decision fined that tube cartel about €1.47 billion for price fixing, market sharing, and the sessions called green meetings.
Overview
Panasonic sold televisions under its own name and also made the cathode-ray tubes that go inside a set. Matsushita is the older corporate name. In the tube years the company was both a brand a household recognized and a component supplier other brands could buy from. Monitor tubes, for desktop computers, were part of the same industrial business as television tubes.
The Commission's 2012 decision included Panasonic with LG, Philips, and other tube makers. Prices were fixed and markets were shared. The meetings used for that coordination were called green meetings. Panasonic's tube operation was its own, which distinguishes it from the LG-Philips tube venture also caught up in the case.
About €1.47 billion is the cartel total in that decision. This profile does not assign Panasonic a separate fine. The direct customers were the factories assembling televisions and monitors. Retail prices came later.
Competition footprint
Television tubes and computer-monitor tubes are both in the decision.
Panasonic participated as a Japanese electronics manufacturer with its own tube production.
Green meetings are the name attached to the competitor sessions on price and customers.
Consumer & business angle
An assembler buying Panasonic tubes, or buying tubes while Panasonic held price discipline with its rivals, was the direct purchaser.
Someone replacing a desktop monitor in the 2000s was downstream of that component price.
What to watch
- How damages claims separate Panasonic's tube sales from the LG-Philips venture when they use the same 2012 decision.
- Component-meeting rules at electronics suppliers, written with green meetings as the example.
Markets
cathode-ray tubes · televisions · computer monitors · cathode ray tubes · television components
Also known as: matsushita, panasonic corporation