Avnet Wins $268M Antitrust Verdict In Price-Fixing Suit

Avnet was awarded almost $268 million in damages by a US jury on Monday, following a lawsuit claiming that a major technology manufacturer inflated prices as part of a global price-fixing scheme.

According to Reuters, the jury in a two-week antitrust trial in San Francisco federal court reached a verdict after two days of deliberation against defendants Nippon Chemi-Con and its subsidiary United Chemi-Con Inc, based in Illinois.

Avnet, a distributor of connectors and semiconductors based in Phoenix and one of the country’s largest, claimed that capacitor components, which are commonly used in electronic devices such as household appliances, mobile phones, and personal computers, were overpriced from 2001 to 2014. Capacitors are responsible for storing electrical energy and regulating current movement.

Read more: UK Watchdog Warns Of Price Fixing Among Money Transfers Firms

Antitrust litigation related to capacitor price-fixing has been ongoing for almost ten years. Both private civil cases and criminal cases brought by the U.S. government have resulted in significant class-action settlements and penalties totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.Avnet chose not to participate in settlements for class action lawsuits involving other direct purchasers of capacitors.

Representatives from Nippon Chemi-Con and United Chemi-Con, who are represented by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, did not respond to requests for comment. Similarly, a representative from United Chemi-Con did not respond to a similar request.