Singapore fines 5 electronics firms $14.7 mln in biggest anti-competition penalty

Nichicon

05/01/2018 08:42

SINGAPORE, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Singapore on Friday fined five 
electronics parts makers a total of S$19.5 million ($14.7 
million) for price-fixing and other cartel activities, the 
biggest anti-competition penalty in the city-state, the 
Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) said.   
    The firms colluded to fix sales prices of Aluminium 
Electrolytic Capacitors (AEC) and exchange confidential and 
sensitive industry information dating back to 1997, the agency 
said in a statement.  
    The firms are Panasonic Industrial Devices Singapore and 
Panasonic Industrial Devices Malaysia, Rubycon Singapore, 
Singapore Chemi-con (SCC), Nichicon  6996.T  Singapore, and ELNA 
Electronics. 
    AECs are electrical parts used in a range of products 
including computers, car engines and various home appliances. 
The five firms accounted for more than two-thirds of Singapore's 
 AEC market share, CCS said.  
    The close competitors held regular meetings attended by 
their senior-level employees on a monthly basis up until 2013, 
the CCS said in the statement.  
    "The fact that the parties held more than two-thirds of the 
share of the market for the sale of AECs in Singapore, the long 
duration of the cartel conduct further contributed to CCS 
imposing the highest financial penalty to date," it said.  
    All the firms except Nichicon applied for leniency and had 
their fines reduced. Panasonic received total immunity from 
financial penalties for coming forward, a move that initiated 
the probe, CCS said. 
    In July last year, Nichicon pleaded guilty to fixing the 
prices of electrolytic capacitors sold in the United States and 
elsewhere and agreed to pay a $42-million fine.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1K21PF 
    Rubycon and ELNA have also been under investigation for 
price-fixing for AECs in the United States.  
    Similar investigations involving AECs are also ongoing in 
China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and in the European Union.  
   ($1 = 1.3265 Singapore dollars) 
 
 (Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Jack Kim and Sunil Nair) 
 ((fathin.ungku@thomsonreuters.com;)) 
 
Keywords: SINGAPORE PRICEFIXING/