Picture Tube claim:

TVs and computer monitors

What is it about?

For 10 years consumers and companies paid too much for colour televisions and computer monitors due to illegal price-fixing agreements. Big name companies such as Philips, Samsung, LG, Technicolor, Toshiba and Panasonic were involved in an international price fixing cartel. Now, because of a recent legal decision, consumers have the right to get some of their money back.

The producers of cathode ray tubes (CRTs) engaged in illegal price-fixing between 1996 and 2006. The overpriced CRTs were sold to television manufacturers, and the inflated cost was then passed on to consumers. As the CRT producers were suppliers to almost all brands of televisions and computer monitors, the price-fixing applied to almost all screen appliances purchased between 1996 and 2006.

The damage amounts to some 10% of the purchase price: for example, if you purchased a television costing £1,000, you paid £100 too much.

Following years of investigation, on 5 December 2012, the European Commission handed out a large fine to the CRT producers, including Philips, Samsung, LG and others. Although Philips is appealing the amount of the fine, in practice such a fine has never been reversed, which makes it likely that our claim will be successful and many consumers will get some of their money back.