Japan/US: Omron Automotive to pay $4.55 million for price-fixing

A Japanese auto supplier to Honda Motor Co. with sales and marketing offices in Novi will plead guilty in Detroit and pay a $4.55 million fine for rigging bids on the prices of power window switches on the Honda Civic for years.

Aichi, Japan-based Omron Automotive Electronics Co. Ltd., parent company of Omron Automotive Electronics Inc. in Illinois, expects to enter a plea before U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds to a charge of conspiracy to restrain trade in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, filed Thursday in Detroit.

The company allegedly colluded with another manufacturer between 2003 and 2013 to suppress competition on window switches for Civics in the 2006 and 2011 model years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division.

“(Omron Automotive) has cooperated fully with the DOJ’s investigation, and decided to enter into the plea agreement upon overall consideration of applicable laws and relevant facts,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “OAE takes this matter seriously and has taken steps to further strengthen its training programs to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations in order to prevent the recurrence of such issues in the future.”

The new charge brought Thursday brings the total to 39 automotive companies and 58 individual executives prosecuted in several states since the first plea agreement with the Justice Department in 2011. Fines assessed have totaled more than $2.6 billion, for the largest single-industry price-fixing prosecution in the division’s history.

Full content: Crain’s Detroit Business

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