EU fines cartels supplying car parts to Toyota, Renault, Honda

The European Union has fined companies supplying car parts to Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Renault millions of euros for operating cartels in electrical wiring systems, the bloc’s executive said on Wednesday.

The decision was the first in a wider crackdown on cartels that could “harm the competitiveness of the automotive industry and artificially inflate prices for final buyers of cars,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.

The European Commission applied fines worth a total of almost 142 million euros ($182 million) after finding that the manufacturers Sumitomo, Yakazi, Furukawa, S-Y Systems Technologies and Leoni had all run cartels in so-called wire harnesses.

These electrical circuits power operations such as starting motors, opening windows and turning on the air conditioning.

Sumitomo was not fined, thus avoiding a 291.6-million-euro penalty, because it blew the whistle on the cartel, the commission said. The charges were reduced for all other manufacturers because they cooperated with the investigation.

The car parts suppliers were found to have rigged or attempted to rig the bidding to provide each of the car manufacturers with wire harnesses. Contacts had taken place in Europe and Japan, the commission said.

The duration of the cartels varied with some starting as early as 2000 and all ending in 2009.

By far the largest share of the fines, more than 125 million euros, went to Yakazi for its involvement in the cartels to supply Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

Sumitomo was the only supplier to be involved in all five cartels.

The commission was also investigating other areas of the car parts sector, it said, with unannounced inspections having taken place in the market for passenger safety systems, bearings, thermal systems and lighting.

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