Taiwan-based Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (3009.TW) agreed Wednesday to plead guilty to fixing prices on liquid-crystal-display panels and will pay a $220 million criminal fine, the U.S. Justice Department announced.

Chi Mei Optoelectronics becomes the sixth company to plead guilty in the Justice Department's probe of price fixing in the market for LCDs used in computers, cell phones and televisions. The investigation has netted more than $860 million in fines.

Other companies that have pleaded guilty are LG Display Co. (LPL), Sharp Corp. (6753.TO), Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (2475.TW), Seiko Epson Corp. (6724.TO) and Hitachi Ltd. (HIT).

The Justice Department said Chi Mei participated in a worldwide LCD price-fixing conspiracy from 2001 to 2006, by which time the market for LCD panels was $70 billion.

The department said the conspiracy affected some of the world's largest computer and television manufacturers, including Apple Inc. (AAPL), Dell Inc. (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ).

Prosecutors said Chi Mei and its co-conspirators participated in meetings in Taiwan, South Korea and the U.S. in which they agreed to fix LCD prices. The companies later shared sales data with each other to ensure all conspirators were adhering to the price-fixing agreement, prosecutors alleged.

Prosecutors didn't say how much the price-fixing victims might have paid in inflated LCD prices.

Chi Mei is the world's fourth-largest supplier of LCD panels. As part of its plea deal with U.S. prosecutors, the company will cooperate with the department's ongoing LCD price-fixing probe.

In a statement Thursday, Chi Mei said it will record the full amount as a non-operating expense in the fourth quarter. It plans to pay the fine in installments over five years.

The charges against Chi Mei were filed in a San Francisco federal court. Shares in Chi Mei were recently down 1.4% at NT$21.20.