Yazaki will pay $100 million to settle U.S. price-fixing claims

DETROIT -- Wire harness market leader Yazaki Corp., which paid the largest U.S. criminal fine so far in a three-year prosecution of automotive supplier price-fixing, also will shell out the largest civil settlement -- $100 million -- in related settlements.Yazaki, whose Yazaki North America Inc. unit was one of the first targets of FBI raids in February 2010, previously agreed to a $470 million criminal judgment in early 2012. Now Yazaki and its North American unit have agreed to pay $100 million in a related civil case before Judge Marianne Battani of U.S. District Court in Detroit.About $24 million of that settlement is earmarked for auto dealerships as one class or portion of the civil case, while $76 million will go to consumers.Misty Matthews, senior manager of communications for Yazaki, today confirmed the settlement amount but would not elaborate, saying the company does not discuss litigation.Also settling with buyers for $5.44 million is safety equipment supplier TRW Deutschland Holding Company GmbH and parent TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., according to motions for preliminary settlement approval brought this week in Battani’s court.Industry analysts have known the two companies had a settlement in the works since June, but no amounts were available until attorneys brought the motions for preliminary approval late Monday.Other suppliersA separate settlement with TRW and dealership plaintiffs still needs to be finalized, attorneys said, but suppliers Lear Corp., Nippon Seiki Co. Ltd., Autoliv Inc. and now Yazaki have agreed to pay the dealers about one-third of what they agreed to pay buyers in their respective settlements. Settling the price-fixing lawsuit also may clear a hurdle for TRW to be sold to German supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG in a deal valued at $13.5 billion. ZF has agreed to buy all TRW stock at $105.60 a share in a deal expected to form the world’s second-largest auto supplier when the transaction closes in 2015.John Wilkerson, senior communications manager at TRW, said he had not yet received details of the settlement but echoed that the company does not discuss legal matters.The U.S. Department of Justice has brought criminal charges against 28 companies and 43 executives since late September 2011, imposing about $2.3 billion in total fines.Federal officials allege various companies in the supply chain have conspired to rig the prices of at least 30 component products sold to Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and the various U.S. subsidiaries of Asian automotive giants between January 2000 and early 2011.The new Yazaki and TRW settlements bring the separate civil lawsuit settlement total to about $184.2 million since late last year.Antitrust regulators in Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia also have been conducting similar investigations to root out price-fixing practices in the industry.Criminal proceedingsThe multidistrict civil case in Detroit is separate from the criminal prosecutions and is a consolidation of several prospective class action lawsuits filed around the country since the initial criminal charges. It is broken out into industry segments as well as into three classes of plaintiffs -- “direct purchasers” or other auto companies bought parts at the colluded prices, along with dealership plaintiffs and consumer plaintiffs.The Yazaki settlement includes $73.2 million to buyers plus $23.1 million to dealers for its role in the prices of automotive harnesses; $2.6 million to buyers plus more than $840,000 to dealers connected to the prices of automotive instrument panel clusters; and more than $50,000 for a smaller role in setting prices for automotive fuel senders.Attorney Hollis Salzman of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP said the new settlements were “another victory in our continued pursuit of justice for consumers and businesses harmed” by the auto parts collusion. Salzman is co-lead counsel for the buyer plaintiffs in the civil case.No industry breakouts were immediately available for TRW’s settlement, but the company is almost exclusively a safety systems provider.“Each settlement brings us one step closer to securing full recovery for the class of injured consumers, and we’re pleased that these settlements continue to move us in the right direction,” Salzman said.Attorneys for TRW and Yazaki did not immediately return calls seeking comment. TRW ranks No. 11 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers with worldwide sales to automakers of $16.1 billion in 2013. Yazaki ranks No. 12 on the list with estimated sales to automakers of $15.6 billion last year.

Yazaki will pay $100 million to settle U.S. price-fixing claims

Featured Stories