Japanese firm indicted over price rigging in S. Korea

A Japanese industrial parts maker and its local sales subsidiary were indicted here on price collusion charges against major South Korean electronics firms, prosecutors said Sunday.

Japan-based Minebea Co. and its Korean unit are accused of colluding with another Japanese firm in fixing the price of small bearing products supplied to Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said.

The activity occurred between June 2003 and July 2011. Minebea was the biggest bearing supplier in the country, controlling 56.3 percent of the market in 2012.

A Minebea executive had denied the price rigging charges during questioning by the fair trade watchdog. However, after the prosecutors received the case from the watchdog in January and summoned the same executive, he admitted to the charges and vowed to prevent price rigging going forward, according to the prosecutors.

The indictment marks the first case in which a foreign firm was indicted by the prosecution on the charge of price rigging against Korean companies. (Yonhap)

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