Avnet Inc. was awarded millions of dollars in an antitrust lawsuit that accused a Japanese technology manufacturer of artificially inflating prices of electronic components.
A San Francisco federal jury on May 22 awarded Phoenix-based Avnet $268 million in damages in a case against Nippon Chemi-Con Corp and its Illinois-based subsidiary, United Chemi-Con Inc. The verdict followed two days of deliberation, Reuters reported.
Avnet, a global distributor of electronics components, had alleged that the two companies were overcharging for aluminum, tantalum and film capacitors from 2001 to 2014. Capacitors are used in electronic devices, including household appliances, mobile phones and computers. Capacitors store electrical energy and help regulate the flow of the electrical current as it moves through a circuit.
