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US: Hitachi to pay $55.48 million fine for price-fixing

By  |  August 9, 2016

Hitachi Automotive Systems agreed to plead guilty to fixing the price of shock absorbers installed in US autos and to pay a criminal fine of $55.48 million, the Justice Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

The plea agreement is the latest in a long-running international probe into price fixing of auto parts. With this agreement, 46 companies and 64 people have been charged in connection with the US investigation, the department said

Hitachi had pleaded guilty in 2013 to fixing the price of starters and other auto parts, the department said.

According to a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Hitachi Automotive worked with unnamed competitors from the mid-1990s to 2011 to decide who would provide shock absorbers to which buyers and to coordinate prices.

Full Content: Reuters

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