Toyoda Gosei Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing

Toyoda Gosei Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing

An automotive parts manufacturer based in Aichi, Japan, has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $26 million criminal fine for its role in conspiracies to fix prices and rig bids for automotive hoses, airbags and steering wheels sold to automobile manufacturers.

According to a two-count felony charge filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Toledo, Toyoda Gosei conspired to fix the prices of certain automotive hoses sold to Toyota Motor Corp. and conspired to fix the prices of automotive airbags and steering wheels sold to Toyota and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.

The plea agreement will be subject to court approval. Toyoda Gosei has agreed to cooperate in the department’s ongoing investigation into anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry.

“When purchasing an automobile, American consumers should feel confident that the sticker price is based on fair market costs to manufacture the vehicle,” said Brent Snyder, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program. “The Antitrust Division will continue to prosecute cases in the auto parts industry to ensure fair and competitive prices are maintained.”

Toyoda Gosei’s involvement in the automotive hoses conspiracy lasted from at least as early as February 2004 until at least September 2010 and its involvement in the automotive airbags and steering wheels conspiracy lasted from at least as early as September 2003 until at least September 2010.

To date, 43 individuals have been charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. Twenty-nine companies, including Toyoda Gosei, have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty and have agreed to pay a total of nearly $2.4 billion in fines.

Toyoda Gosei is charged with price fixing and bid rigging in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty for corporations of $100 million for each violation. The maximum fine 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.

The charge is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI.