November 22/2012
Japan Fair Trade Commission
The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) issued cease and desist orders and surcharge payment orders based on Article 7(2) and Article 7-2(1) of the Antimonopoly Act (AMA) respectively toautomotive parts manufacturers listed below.The companies conspired in procurements of automotive generators, automotive starters, automotive windshield wiper systems, and automotive radiators and electrical fans (note1) orderedby automobile companies (note2), which constitute violations of the AMA.
The JFTC initiated the investigation in July 2011 at around the same time as other competition authorities including the United States Department of Justice.
(Note1) See Appendix for details.
(Note2) “Automobile companies” are Honda Motor Co.,Ltd. (Honda), Suzuki Motor Corporation (Suzuki), Nissan Motor Co.,Ltd. and Nissan Shatai Co.,Ltd. (Nissan) , and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (Fuji)
1. The violators, the number of cease and desist orders and the number of surcharge payment orders that each violator received,and the amount of the surcharge
| Violators | Number of cease and desist orders received | Number of surcharge payment orders received | Total amount of surcharge (yen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Mitsubishi) |
4 | 4 | 1,410,310,000 |
| Mitsuba Corporation (Mitsuba) |
4 | 4 | 1,107,510,000 |
| T.RAD Co., Ltd. (T.RAD) |
1 | 1 | 672,350,000 |
| Calsonic Kansei Corporation (Calsonic Kansei) |
1 | 1 | 198,660,000 |
| Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd. (Hitachi Automotive) |
2 | － | － |
| Hitachi, Ltd. (Hitachi) |
－ | － | － |
| Denso Corporation (Denso) |
－ | － | － |
| Total | 3,388,830,000 | ||
(Note3) “－” meansthe company that is found to be a violator but not subject to a cease and desist order or a surcharge payment order.
(Note4) Hitachi Automotive succeeded Hitachi’s business of alternators and starters as of July 1st, 2009, when Hitachi Automotive was incorporated through incorporation-type company split by Hitachi, and since the date, Hitachi does not run the business.
2. Outlines of the violations
According to the table below, the violators substantially restrained competition in the fields of each product ordered by each automobile company, by designating successful bidders and managing to have the designated successful bidders win the biddings, respectively.
| Products | Automobile companies | Starting date of the violations (at least as early as) |
Violators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generators | Honda | November 2000 | Mitsubishi Denso |
| Suzuki | July 2001 | Mitsubishi Hitachi Automotive Hitachi Denso |
|
| Starters | Honda | November 2000 | Mitsuba Mitsubishi Denso |
| Suzuki | July 2001 | Mitsubishi Hitachi Automotive Hitachi Denso |
|
| Windshield wiper systems | Suzuki | September 2002 | Mitsuba Denso |
| Nissan | March 2003 | Mitsuba Denso |
|
| Fuji | June 2000 | Mitsuba Denso |
|
| Radiators and electrical fans | Honda | February 2001 | T.RAD Denso |
| Fuji | March 2002 | Calsonic Kansei Denso |
(Note5) Starting date of the violations of Hitachi Automotive is July 1st, 2009.
3. Outlines of the cease and desist orders
(1) Each company who received the cease and desist orders shall adopt a resolution at their board of directors confirming that it has terminated the conducts in the above 2, and that it will independently carry out its business without engaging in any similar conducts as those referred in the above 2.
(2) Each company who received the cease and desist orders shall each notify the other violators and the automobile manufactures of the measure taken in accordance with the above 3(1), and shall have such measure disseminated to its employees.
(3) Each company who received the cease and desist orders shall not engage in any similar conducts as those referred in the above 2 in the future.
(4) Each company who received the cease and desist orders shall take measures necessary to address the followings:
(a) Thorough announcement to its employees of guidelines on compliance with the AMA in relation to sales activities for its own products;
(b) Implementation of regular trainings for its employees engaged in sales of the products referred in the above 2 and regular audits by legal department, with regard to compliance with the AMA.
4. Outline of the surcharge payment orders
(1) Each company who received the surcharge payment orders shall pay the amount of the surcharge listed in the above 1 by February 25th, 2013.
(2) Based on Article 7-2(7) of the AMA, the JFTC increased the amount of the surcharge by 50 percent against the company who had received another surcharge payment order within the past 10 years.
*Every announcement is tentative translation. Please refer to the original text written in Japanese.
