This case involves a massive conspiracy to fix the prices of component parts of cars. CPM alleges that these increased prices are then passed on to the consumers who purchase motor vehicles. The first settlements have been announced in this case with defendants TRW, Yazaki, Nippon Seiki, Autoliv, Lear, Hitachi, and Panasonic. The Court has also upheld complaints in the Wire Harness, Fuel Senders, Heating Control Panel, and Bearings cases, and discovery is beginning. Thus far, at least twenty-nine separate auto parts have been identified as being the subject of price-fixing by defendants. The United States Department of Justice has called this conspiracy the “biggest criminal antitrust investigation that we’ve ever encountered . . . with respect to the impact on U.S. businesses and consumers.”
