EU: CD, DVD Drive makers said to face antitrust fines

Makers of CD and DVD drives in a three-year-old European Union price-fixing complaint may face fines as soon as Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

Some recipients of a formal EU complaint in 2012 are set to be fined, said the people who asked not to be identified because the decision isn’t public. Thirteen companies were sent the so-called statement of objections three years ago including Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. and Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology Corp.

The European Commission was supposed to announce the fines as early as July, but the case was held up as EU officials communicated the findings in the statement of objections to additional entities, one of the people said.

The penalties could be one of two major competition decisions Wednesday as the regulators are expected to release the results of a tax probe involving Starbucks Corp. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.

Full content: Bloomberg

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