Nokia is suing a raft of manufacturers of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), alleging that they colluded to fix prices. Its targets include rival handset vendors Samsung, LG and Sharp. The Finnish vendor alleges that such companies raised “the price of LCDs above the price that would have prevailed in a competitive market” in the period between January 1996 and December 2006. “Nokia suffered damages as a result… and is entitled to treble damages and injunctive relief to remedy these injuries,” Nokia said in its complaint, reports Dow Jones Newswires. Nokia is suing 11 companies in total; also named in the complaint are AU Optronics, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Tatung, Seiko Epson, Samsung SDI, Hitachi, Toshiba and Philips Electronics.

The report notes that Nokia’s suit comes as the LCD industry begins to emerge from a long downturn that had led to weak panel prices. The screens are used in mobile phones, personal computers and televisions. However, it is not the first time that the LCD suppliers have been investigated. Nokia’s complaint comes a year after a US Department of Justice inquiry that fined several players – including Sharp, Chunghwa, and LG Display – for price fixing. In other Nokia news today, the Finnish company said it has sold its shares in Venyon – a specialist in Near Field Communications (NFC) – to the German firm, Giesecke & Devrient.