Yamada Manufacturing Co. Ltd, Price Fixing and Bid Rigging, Ohio 2012

Yamada Manufacturing Co. Ltd., a Japanese auto parts manufacturer, has agreed to plead guilty to its role in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for manual steering columns installed in cars sold in the U.S. and elsewhere. The company will pay a $2.5 million criminal fine for its crimes.

The charges were filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Yamada Manufacturing, based in Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, conspired to rig bids and fix prices of steering columns sold to Honda Motor Co. Ltd. subsidiaries in the U.S. and elsewhere. The conspiracy lasted from at least 2007 to as late as September 2012.

“Yamada’s collusion deprived Honda and its U.S. customers the benefits of freely set prices for manual steering columns, a simple but necessary auto part,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Antitrust Division. “Companies that conspire to undermine competition and harm U.S. consumers will continue to be held accountable for their crimes.”

The plea agreement is subject to court approval, and Yamada Manufacturing has agreed to cooperate in the ongoing investigation. The charges are the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry.

Yamada Manufacturing is charged with one count of price fixing and bid rigging in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries maximum penalties of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations. 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.

This is the latest development in the Antitrust Division’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. Including Yamada Manufacturing, 35 companies and 29 executives have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in the division’s investigation and have agreed to pay a total of more than $2.5 billion in criminal fines.

Anyone with information on price fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct related to other products in the automotive parts industry should contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html or call the FBI’s Cincinnati Field Office at 513-421-4310.

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