Nichicon to Pay $42 Million Fine Related to Electrolytic Cap Business
Nichicon Corporation entered into a plea agreement with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on July 11, 2017 (US time), agreeing to pay a fine in the amount of US$42 million for the alleged violation of United States antitrust laws by Nichicon in relation to the sale of electrolytic capacitors. As part of the announcement, Nichicon issued the following statement:
We sincerely apologize for the great anxiety and inconvenience we have caused to our shareholders, customers, and all persons concerned.
Nichicon takes this with utmost seriousness, and will endeavor to restore public trust, with the whole company working as one, by seeking dissemination and ensuring of legal understanding and further improvement of the compliance structure, never to cause a situation like this again.
1. Details of the case
Since March 2014, Nichicon has fully cooperated with the DOJ throughout its investigation on electrolytic capacitors. Upon overall consideration of applicable laws, relevant facts, etc., and receiving advice from outside experts and others, Nichicon has recently decided to enter into the above-mentioned plea agreement with the DOJ.
2. Effects on business performance
With this plea agreement, the amount above will be posted as an extraordinary loss in the first quarter of the current term ending March 2018.In line with this, we have revised our earnings forecast for the term ending March 2018 as per the “Announcement of Revision of Earnings Forecast” released as of today.
3. Measures to prevent recurrence
We have made efforts to disseminate and ensure compliance with antitrust laws as part of our compliance management. This time, however, we regret to see that our efforts have been insufficient. To restore public trust, the Compliance Law Compliance Subcommittee will take the initiative under the leadership of our top management as we work even harder to disseminate and ensure strict compliance with regard to antitrust laws throughout the Nichicon Group.
Specifically, we established the Competition Law Compliance Rules that set out basic matters to be complied with in conducting business, set up the Competition Law Compliance Subcommittee as well as internal and external contact points, and placed persons in charge of competition law compliance at all bases including domestic and foreign group companies of Nichicon. In addition, we conducted training sessions, seeking dissemination and ensuring of the contents of such training to and by all officers and employees of the Nichicon Group, and also established regular internal audit procedures.
We will endeavor to ensure compliance with antitrust laws by steadily continuing these measures to prevent recurrence and further enhancing enlightenment and awareness.
