TOLEDO, OHIO – Bridgestone Corp., a Tokyo, the Japan-based company, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $425 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices of automotive anti-vibration rubber parts installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today.
Including Bridgestone, authorities said 26 companies have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the automotive parts industry. The companies have agreed to pay a total of more than $2 billion in criminal fines.
Additionally, 28 individuals have been charged, officials said.
Bridgestone and other companies engaged in a conspiracy to allocate sales of, to rig bids for and to fix, raise and maintain the prices of automotive anti-vibration rubber parts it sold to Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Corp., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., Suzuki Motor Corp., Isuzu Motors Ltd. and certain of their subsidiaries, affiliates and suppliers, in the United States and elsewhere, according to a one-count felony charged.
In addition to the criminal fine, federal officials said Bridgestone also has agreed to cooperate with the department’s ongoing auto parts investigations.
“Today’s significant fine reaffirms the division’s commitment to holding companies accountable for conduct that harms U.S. consumers.” said Brent Snyder, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program.
Bridgestone manufactures and sells a variety of automotive parts, including anti-vibration rubber parts, which are installed in automobiles for the purpose of reducing road and engine vibration.
In October 2011, Bridgestone pleaded guilty and paid a $28 million fine for price-fixing and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in the marine hose industry, but did not disclose at the time of the plea that it had also participated in the anti-vibration rubber parts conspiracy.
Bridgestone’s failure to disclose this conspiracy was a factor in determining the $425 million fine.
“The Antitrust Division will take a hard line when repeat offenders fail to disclose additional anticompetitive behavior,” said Snyder,
Federal officials said Bridgestone and its co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy through meetings and conversations in which they discussed and agreed upon bids, prices and allocating sales of certain automotive anti-vibration rubber products.
After exchanging this information with its co-conspirators, authorities said Bridgestone submitted bids and prices in accordance with those agreements and sold and accepted payments for automotive anti-vibration rubber parts at collusive and noncompetitive prices.
Bridgestone’s involvement in the conspiracy to fix prices of anti-vibration rubber parts lasted from at least January 2001 until at least December 2008, according to prosecutors.
Bridgestone is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act.