Nippon Seiki Co. has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $1 million criminal fine for taking part in a price-fixing scheme for meters installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The electronics maker based in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, is the sixth Japanese company accused of violating the U.S. antitrust law amid an ongoing U.S. federal investigation into price-fixing practices involving car parts suppliers.
Nippon Seiki engaged in conspiracies to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of instrument panel clusters sold to an automaker from 2008 through 2010, according to the charge filed in the U.S. District Court in Michigan.