Antitrust Cops Raid Philips

European competition authorities raided Philips this week. The European Commission suspects that a number of electronics companies, including Philips, made mutual agreements to influence internet sales to drive up prices of their products.Philips announced to fully coöperate with an investigation. A spokesperson would not disclose any more information, because the investigation is still ongoing. Philips Head Office in Amsterdam / Wikipedia The European Commission announced the raids at several electronics manufacturers Thursday. The investigators suspect the companies made a joint effort to suppress the internet sales of certain products, thus driving up the prices. Several electronics companies, such as the German retail group, Metro, from Media Markt and Saturn, and the Korean Samsung announced earlier they were involved in the investigation. Late last year, Philips received a fine of around half a billion euros for price-fixing on tubes. In March, Philips Austria was fined 3 million for price fixing in the retail of televisions and other electronics.