A unit of Seiko Epson Corp (6724.T) agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to fix prices for liquid crystal screens sold to mobile phone maker Motorola Inc (MOT.N), the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Epson Imaging Devices Corp, which was known as Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corp at the time of the conspiracy, agreed to pay a $26 million fine for the conspiracy involving LCD panels that were used in Razr mobile phones from late 2005 through mid-2006, the government said.

The company was charged with agreeing with unnamed co-conpirators in Japan to charge certain prices for so-called Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display panels and issuing price quotations in line with those agreements, the Justice Department said.

In addition to the guilty plea, which is subject to court approval, Epson also agreed to continue with the ongoing antitrust investigation.

An attempt to reach the company for comment was not immediately successful. (Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

Japan Price