European regulators have fined some of the world's largest electronics companies a record of nearly $2 billion for fixing the prices of television and computer screens.

The European Union's antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, said the companies engaged in some of “the worst kinds of anti-competitive behavior” from the late 1990s through 2006, establishing prices they would charge for cathode-ray tubes. That technology was widely used at the time, but now has largely been replaced by liquid-crystal and plasma display units.

The largest penalties were imposed against Philips Electronics of the Netherlands, South Korea's LG Electronics and Japan's Panasonic. The regulators also fined two other Asian companies, Samsung and Toshiba, and France's Technicolor.