Aisan Industry to Plead Guilty of Price Fixing

The second Japanese auto supplier in less than a week has agreed to plead guilty of rigging prices on its products and pay a criminal fine of $6.9 million, the U.S. Dept. of Justice says.

Aisan Industry Co., an Obu, Japan-based supplier, will acknowledge it fixed prices for electronic engine throttle bodies sold to Nissan Motor Co. and others between 2003 and at least early 2010.

Aisan's plea brings to 25 the number of corporations pleading or agreeing to plead guilty of price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act. The Justice Dept. has collected more than $1.8 billion in fines to date in its probe, which is part of an international investigation into anticompetitive activities in the auto supply industry.