Image credit: U.S. Justice Department

A press conference was held today in Washington, and reporters have been informed that although they have found price-fixing conspiracies from suppliers, their work is still not done. They have said they are finding more and more parts involved in the conspiracy with every auto part they have uncovered. They promise to keep searching and to not quit until they can put an end to this illegal scheme.

Nine Japanese companies and two executives have agreed to plead guilty to these conspiracy charges, and for their roles in these activities they will be paying more than $740 million. The charges claim that more than 30 products for vehicles sold in the U.S. and other countries are affected by the price-fixing. What this equates to is about $200 per vehicle that were part of the scheme, affecting $5 billion in parts used in 25 million vehicles.

Justice department officials would not say how much this would have affected the price on those cars, but the probe has become one of the largest criminal antitrust investigations in the Justice Department’s history, according to an Automotive News article. The article also states that more than $1.6 billion in fines were imposed on automotive suppliers since September, 2011.

While this doesn’t justify the high price we have paid for parts over the past several decades, it does bring to light that sometimes those higher prices were passed on to us because of price-fixing schemes that cost car companies. Civil lawsuits are starting to show up in U.S. courts as a result of schemes such as these.

While this investigation centers on Japanese suppliers, this doesn’t mean it’s the beginning or the end, sadly. The ongoing investigation has included 20 companies and 21 executives in the U.S. that have also been charged, and they have pleaded guilty and agreed to pay more than $1.6 billion in criminal fines. Of those 21 executives, 17 of them have been sentenced to serve time in prison.

Japanese officials are cooperating with the probe, and the Japanese Fair Trade Commission has provided some of the tips that led to the charges being filed. United States subsidiaries of Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota, and Fuji Heavy Industries – parent company of Subaru – are also included in the list of auto manufacturers that were affected by the scandal. For more information and a list of companies and fines, see the article in Automotive News.

How does this make you feel about that new car that you purchased? Are the 1-2 year prison sentences imposed going to be enough, considering these fines are not even close to the $5 billion in parts involved in the price-fixing schemes? Tell us your thoughts below.