SAN FRANCISCO Defendants have been running for the exits in the consolidated antitrust class action over alleged price-fixing in the market for thin-screen LCD panels, paying close to $1 billion to settle claims by direct and indirect LCD purchasers since last year. In a letter filed in the five-year-old multidistrict litigation on Wednesday, lawyers for LG asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to scrap her plans for a bifurcated trial in May, explaining that with two new settlements last week, LG and Toshiba are the only defendants left. The judge rejected that argument at a hearing on Wednesday, opting to move forward with the trial as planned.
AU Optronics Corp. and Toshiba settled the indirect purchasers’ claims “in the past several days” according to a three-page letter filed by LG’s lawyers at Munger, Tolles & Olson and Paul Hastings. With AUO and Toshiba choosing to make deals, LG is the sole defendant left facing the indirect purchasers’ class claims, the lawyers wrote. Toshiba, which is represented by White & Case, is the only company left standing to battle class claims by direct purchasers. Given that the settlements leave no common defendants between the two classes, LG’s lawyers asked Illston to hold two separate trials.
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