Major Antitrust Issues In Automotive Industry: Forewarned Is Forearmed

I. Introduction

Automotive industry and particularly car parts sector has become an investigation target of competition authorities of various jurisdictions in recent years due to its importance both from the point of view of the economy as a whole and the individual customers. Cartels in car parts sector impair competitiveness of the automotive industry and artificially raise the price of cars.

Numerous investigations into anticompetitive business conduct of the car parts producers have taken place. Price fixing, bid rigging and exchange of information as the most common violations have been detected in the automotive industry for various goods, including wire harnesses, bearings, fuel-operated parking heaters, flexible foam used in car seats, etc. Perpetrator companies have been faced with heavy monetary fines (as well as with prison terms for numerous executives in some jurisdictions, e.g. the USA) with the view to deterring illegal behaviour and helping to