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Japan: US nets Bridgestone with latest price-fixing guilty plea

By  |  February 14, 2014

The US Department of Justice has scored its latest guilty plea in efforts to crack down on auto parts price-fixing as the regulator announce Japan-based Bridgestone Corp has agreed to plead guilty and pay a fine.

Bridgestone will pay $425 million in fines for its alleged role in conspiring to fix anti-vibration rubber car parts that were sold in the US to companies including Toyota and Nissan.

Bridgestone is the 26th company to plead guilty to price-fixing or bid-rigging in the DOJ’s case; more than $2 billion in fines have been sanctioned against the firms.

The latest fine was levied against Bridgestone partially for the company’s failure to plead guilty to the rubber parts price manipulation at the same time of its 2011 guilty plea to marine hose price-fixing, the DOJ said.

Full Content: Reuters

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