Japanese automotive supplier Inoac fined in Canada in bid rigging case

Tokyo - Japanese auto parts manufacturer Inoac Corp. has been fined about $1 million (€880,000) after pleading guilty to being part of an international bid-rigging conspiracy.

Inoac entered its plea 19 Oct before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, according to a news release from Competition Bureau Canada.

According to the statement, Inoac entered into an illegal agreement with a competing Japanese manufacturer for bidding on Toyota contracts for plastic interior car parts. Those parts were used in Toyota Corollas manufactured and sold in Canada between 2008 and 2014, the agency said.

Inoac's guilty plea concluded the Competition Bureau's investigation of international bid rigging between car parts suppliers, the release said.

Altogether, 13 companies pleaded guilty in the investigation, and received fines totaling more than $86 million, the agency said.

In November 2015, Nagoya, Japan-based Inoac pleaded guilty to price-fixing and bid-rigging on the same parts before the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Inoac conspired with other auto parts makers to fix prices and rig bids on plastic parts sold to Toyota from at least June 2004 to September 2012, according to the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice. Inoac was fined $2.35 million.