UPDATE - added Hitachi, Nintendo comments
According to Bloomberg, Kyodo News reported that the two companies were raided by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission. Other than confirming that they were under investigation, spokesmen for both companies declined to comment further.
Japanese law states that any manufacturer found guilty of price fixing can be fined as much as 10 percent of gains deemed to have been obtained illegally.
Both companies took a hit on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, as shares in Sharp fell 3.1 percent to 1,976 yen and Hitachi shares dropped 2.3 percent to 779 yen at close, significantly more than the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average decline of 0.8 percent, Bloomberg noted.
Next-Gen has Nintendo and the parties under investigation for comment on the reports.
“We are lending our full support to this investigation [into Hitachi Displays]," a Hitachi Europe spokesperson told Next-Gen.
In an email to Next-Gen a Nintendo spokesperson said:
“We just heard today that the Fair Trade Commission in Japan conducted on-the-spot investigations with Sharp Corp. and Hitachi Displays, Ltd. in Japan with the suspicion that these two companies formed a cartel regarding the prices of LCD's that they sold to Nintendo Co., Ltd.
“At this point in time, Nintendo is not in a position to make any comments on this, except to confirm that Nintendo itself is not being investigated by the FTC.”