Antitrust: High Cost of Conspiracy

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General Electric has discovered that the cost of price fixing comes a lot higher than it had expected. When G.E. was convicted along with 28 other electrical-equipment makers in the Great Electrical Conspiracy three years ago (TIME, Feb. 17, 1961 et seq.), the company figured that $50 million would be enough to settle the damage suits from overcharged customers. Last week, as Chairman Ralph J. Cordiner, 63, retired to his cattle and citrus ranch in Florida, he gloomily reported that so many of the firm's 500 complaining customers were holding out for more money that the final settlements may total upwards of $75 million. Biggest single payment: $6,470,000 to the Tennessee Valley Authority. The $50 million that G.E. set aside in 1962 cost company stockholders 240 per share and reduced net earnings to $2.72 per share, but at least, says Cordiner, nearly two-thirds of the claims have now been settled.