Hitachi agrees to pay $55M fine for shock absorber price-fixing

The U.S. Department of Justice said this week that Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd. has agreed to pay a criminal fine of at least $55.5 million for its involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices for shock absorbers installed in cars sold in the United States

The DOJ charges filed in an Ohio federal court maintain Hitachi and other companies arranged price adjustments for the shock absorbers and agreed to allocate the supply of the parts sold to vehicle manufacturers from the mid-1990s through the summer of 2011.