"NHK Spring Co. Ltd. (NHK Spring), a Japanese manufacturer of suspension assemblies used in hard disk drives, has agreed to plead guilty for its role in a global conspiracy to fix prices", the release said on Monday.
The release added that NHK Spring reached agreements with co-conspirators to avoid price competition and allocate their respective market shares for suspension assemblies used in hard disk drives.
In accordance with their agreement, the release said, NHK Spring and its co-conspirators exchanged pricing information including anticipated pricing quotes from May 2008 to April 2016, which they used to inform their negotiations with US and foreign customers that purchased suspension assemblies and produced hard disk drives for sale in the United States or other countries.
NHK Spring has agreed to pay a $28.5 million fine and cooperate in the ongoing investigation, the release said.
