SEOUL, KOREA - The Fair Trade Commission said on November 16 that it would impose fines of 77.8 billion won (US$70.5 million) to nine Japanese and German ball bearing producers for price fixing for 14 years from 1998 to 2012. The antitrust regulator will also accuse the companies with the prosecutors' office. The companies subject to the accusation are NSK, JTEKT, Fujikoshi, Schaeffler Korea, Hanwha, and Minebea. This is the first time for the regulator to charge foreign headquarters with unfair dealings.

 

According to the charges, the companies had formed a consultative body called the "Asia Study Group" in 1990 in order to avoid price competition and raise ball bearing prices in the Asian market. JTEKT and Fujikoshi raised their export prices and NSK instructed its Korean unit to raise selling prices in Korea.

 

In particular, NSK and NSK Korea played a role of relaying price collusion information between Japan and Korea. In Korea, companies like NSK Korea, Schaeffler Korea, and Hanwha agreed with each other to price increase rates and increase timing. For the past 14 years, these companies have increased their bearing prices up to 100 percent. 

 

Kim Dae-young, FTC manager in charge of international cartels, said, "This is the first time to accuse foreign company main offices. As we take corrective measures to the bearing market with a high import dependency ratio, we expect the domestic bearing prices to stabilize."

 

Article provided by The Korea Economic Daily