Nippon Seiki Co. Ltd., Price Fixing, Washington 2023

WASHINGTON – In a crushing blow to the automotive parts industry, Nagoka, Japan-based Nippon Seiki Co. Ltd. has agreed to plead guilty to a $1 million fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices of instrument panel clusters installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today.

Nippon Seiki, a leading manufacturer of automotive parts, including instrument panel clusters, engaged in conspiracies to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of instrument panel clusters sold to an automaker in the United States and elsewhere. The company’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least April 2008 until at least February 2010, according to a one-count felony charge filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit.

Instrument panel clusters, also known as meters, are the mounted array of instruments and gauges housed in front of the driver of an automobile. The department said that Nippon Seiki and its co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by agreeing, during meetings and conversations, to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of instrument panel clusters on a model-by-model basis.

As part of the plea agreement, which will be subject to court approval, Nippon Seiki has agreed to cooperate with the department’s investigation. This is the latest development in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry.

“For nearly two years, Nippon Seiki conspired to sell instrument control panels at collusive and noncompetitive prices, affecting the prices of many automobiles sold in the United States,” said Scott D. Hammond, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program. “The division will continue to hold companies accountable for these types of anticompetitive practices that harm American consumers.”

Nippon Seiki is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations. The maximum fine for the company may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

Eight companies and 11 executives have been charged in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd., DENSO Corp., Yazaki Corp., G.S. Electech Inc., Fujikura Ltd. and Autoliv Inc. pleaded guilty and were sentenced to pay a total of more than $785 million in criminal fines.

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