EU antitrust regulators fines five car airbag, seatbelt suppliers for cartel

EU antitrust regulators fined 5 car saftey devices makers an overall of 34 million euros ($40.0 million) on Wednesday for participating in cartels to fix prices for seat belts, air bags and steering wheels to Japanese automakers.

The Commission, which supervises competition policy in the European Union, stated it had identified that 4 separate cartels in which suppliers to Toyota, Suzuki and Honda coordinated over prices and markets and exchanged sensitive details between 2004 and 2010.

Tokai Rika was fined 1.8 million euros, Takata 12.7 million euros, Autoliv 8.1 million euros, Toyoda Gosei 11.3 million euros and Marutaka 156,000 euros.