KYB Agrees to Plead Guilty and Pay $62 Million Criminal Fine for Price Fixing

According to The Department of Justice, Kayaba Industry Co. Ltd., dba KYB Corporation has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $62 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix the price of shock absorbers installed in cars and motorcycles sold to U.S. consumers. 

According to charges filed, KYB conspired from the mid-1990s until 2012 to fix the prices of shock absorbers sold to Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (manufacturer of Subaru vehicles), Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Nissan Motor Company Ltd., Suzuki Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Company, including their subsidiaries in the United States. 

“KYB turned the competitive process on its head by agreeing with its competitors to fix the prices of shock absorbers installed in cars and motorcycles sold in the U.S.,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “Working with the FBI and our other law enforcement partners, the Antitrust Division will continue to protect American car buyers and hold automotive part suppliers accountable for their illegal conduct.”

“Fixing prices and rigging bids is against the law and ultimately harms consumers by artificially inflating prices and creating a corrupt marketplace,” said Special Agent in Charge Angela L. Byers of the FBI’s Cincinnati Division.  “The FBI and our partners will continue to investigate anticompetitive practices and promote fair competition.”

According to the information filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio, KYB, based in Tokyo, and its two co-conspirators agreed to allocate the supply of shock absorbers sold and determine the price submitted to the targeted vehicle manufacturers.  To keep prices up, KYB and its co-conspirators also agreed to coordinate on price adjustments requested by the vehicle manufacturers and strived to keep their conduct secret. 

640,000 Altima Sedans Recalled

Nissan North America Inc. has recalled 640,000 Altima sedans after discovering the cars’ hoods can fly open while in motion. This brings the total number of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles recalled for the defect in the past year to nearly 1.1 million. On March 3, Nissan notified dealerships of the recall after the manufacturer discovered certain model year 2013 through 2015 Altimas contain secondary hood latches that may not fully engage when the hood is closed. The defect increases the risk that it will fly open unexpectedly while the vehicle is in motion and cause a crash. According to Nissan, there have been no reports of collisions or injuries caused by the defect.

In January, Nissan recalled 216,000 Nissan Pathfinder and Infiniti JX35s and QX60s for the same problem. Three months before that, hood latch issues prompted the recall of 238,000 model year 2013 Altimas. According to its report to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Nissan said it is continuing to investigate which vehicles are involved in the current recall and said its work is ongoing. So far it had pointed to 625,000 Altimas sold in the U.S. and 15,000 sold in Canada. The agency said: Nissan is continuing to investigate the root cause of this issue. Once Nissan concludes its investigation, we may revise the defect description.

The manufacturer noted that it has not yet developed a remedy for the problem but plans to provide information as soon as it becomes available. The company plans to implement an interim procedure to inspect and lubricate the secondary hood latch assembly on all subject vehicles in dealer inventory prior to retail sale. “We will not include a statement in the Part 577 owner notification concerning reimbursement for the cost of obtaining a pre-notification remedy as the subject vehicles are under warranty,” Nissan said.

Nissan should complete notifications to customers of the defect by the end of this month. The automaker’s recalls so far this year have not been confined to only hood-related issues. In January, the automaker recalled 470,000 model year 2008 through 2014 Nissan Rogues that NHTSA found to be plagued by electrical shorts in a seat belt component due to a mixture of snow or water and salt seeping through the carpet on the driver side floor. The electrical shorts can cause a fire in the SUVs, according to NHTSA.

Eight Car Makers Join in the Recall of Exploding Airbags



When designed correctly, airbags will save lives. According to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, airbags have saved approximately 35,000 lives since 1987. However, when airbags are defectively designed, they create a high risk of severe injury and death. As of 2009, defective airbags were responsible for 296 deaths, 59 life threatening injuries, and countless severe injuries.

Signs that you have  defective airbags are when one of the following occurs:

• The airbag inflates too quickly and aggressively, violently hitting the occupant in the face; or

• The airbag ruptures before inflation, spewing pieces of metal into the occupant’s body.
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NHTSA has opened an investigation into the issue and says that it knows of six incidents of ruptured bags and three injuries in high-humidity Florida and Puerto Rico. As of mid-July, eight car manufacturers including Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, and Subaru had joined in the recall of these defective Takata airbags. In the latest actions:

• Honda recalled 1.02 million vehicles in North America and 2.03 million worldwide. They were built from 2000 through 2005 and include some models of Civic, CR-V, Odyssey and Element. With this expansion, air bag recalls have affected nearly 4 million of the company’s older vehicles in North America.

• Nissan recalled 755,000 vehicles worldwide built from 2001 through 2003, with about a quarter-million Pathfinder, Cube and Infiniti FX35 models in North America.

• Mazda recalled nearly 160,000 vehicles made from 2002 through 2004, with about 15,000 in North America, including RX-8 and early Mazda6 sedans.

• Regional recalls in the U.S. by Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Toyota, BMW, Ford and Chrysler of certain vehicles in humid climates. NHTSA estimates that 1.5 million vehicles could be affected — the totals and lists of vehicles still were being compiled.

• Subaru is recalling nearly 8,600 Subaru Legacy cars, Outback wagons, Baja crossovers, and Impreza cars.

Since 2008, more than 10 million cars containing the defective Takata airbags have been recalled.