Cartel behaviour in the automotive supply chain
CIPS
26 September 2013
As part of a wide-ranging investigation by the US Department of Justice into price fixing in the car industry, nine Japan-based companies and two executives have agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to fix the price of car parts sold to US car manufacturers. So far, 20 companies and 21 executives have been charged over the practices, centring on collusion between parts suppliers to ensure that prices for various car parts, such as seatbelts and windshield wipers, were kept high. You might like to add this case to other high-profile examples of price-fixing, collusion and cartel behaviour.