NGK Spark Plug to Pay $51 Million Price-Fixing Fine

Japan's NGK Spark Plug Co. has agreed to plead guilty and pay $51 million criminal fine for fix prices on spark plugs, oxygen sensors and air-fuel ratio sensors between at least 2000 and 2011.

The U.S. Dept. of Justice says NGK and unidentified co-conspirators rigged bids and manipulated prices for components supplied to Honda, Toyota and the former DaimlerChrysler in the U.S. and elsewhere.

NGK's guilty plea is the latest result of a continuing international probe of bid rigging in the U.S., Europe and Japan. The Justice Dept. says 28 companies and 26 executives have pleaded guilty or agreed to do so in the U.S. alone.