Three companies today pleaded guilty to price-fixing their liquid-crystal displays, affecting everything from TVs to monitors to screens for your iPod. LG, Sharp Electronics, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes admitted to the Justice Department that they worked together to fix prices on the screens, which has apparently affected Dell, Apple, and Motorola, among others.

This market hijack is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and brings with it a hefty $585 million fine. CNet reports that the Justice Department found the companies had agreed to set prices, and then priced their screens according to the agreement. The participants went so far as to provide pricing reports to each other to enforce their agreement.

LG will pay the lion’s share of the fines, a cool $400 million for its efforts to price-fix over five years, ranging from September 01 through June 06; Sharp will contribute $120 million, and Chunghwa, $65 million.

The New York Times says investigators are still looking in to the matter and do not have an estimated sum of damages caused by the price-fixing.

Sad, sad, sad.