The European Union's top court upheld fines of 150.8 million euros ($159.1 million) imposed on Korea's Samsung SDI and subsidiaries for participating in cartels to fix the prices of cathode ray tubes used in televisions and as computer monitors.

The European Commission imposed fines totaling 1.47 billion euros on a group of companies including Philips, LG Electronics and Panasonic in 2012 for participating in cartels in the market of cathode ray tubes between 1996/97 and 2006.

Samsung SDI appealed on a variety of grounds, including that sales of products not subject to the cartel should have been excluded from the fine calculation and that it had been discriminated against.

The General Court rejected Samsung SDI's appeal in 2015 and the European Court of Justice upheld that ruling on Thursday, saying it could only reduce the fine if it was inappropriate or excessive.

Toshiba lost a similar appeal in January.