TRW Automotive Agrees to $1.7M Price-Fixing Class Action Settlement

On Monday, TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. agreed to a $1.7 million class action settlement to resolve allegations of engaging in an occupant safety systems price-fixing scheme brought against the company in a larger auto parts antitrust multidistrict litigation.

The plaintiffs, consisting of a group of auto dealers, urged U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani to approve the settlement agreement between themselves, TRW, and TRW ‘s European branch TRW Deutschland Holding GmbH. This deal will settle allegations brought forth by the dealerships that TRW and TRW Deutschland fixed prices on safety system parts, which include air bags, seat belts, steering wheels and safety electronic systems.

According to the TRW safety systems price-fixing class action settlement, the $1.7 million settlement will allow the auto dealers to avoid the costs of further discovery and litigation, but will not allow TRW to duck the price-fixing claims. The allegations against TRW will remain under scrutiny in order to calculate treble damages and additional liability claims against the auto dealer.

In the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary approval of the TRW class action settlement, they have stated that the settlement agreement will allow “dealership plaintiffs and the proposed settlement class [to] retain their ability to recover from the remaining defendants the entire damages caused by the alleged conspiracy, even those attributable to TRW, less only the amount paid by TRW in settlement.”

The occupant safety systems price-fixing class action lawsuit against TRW was born out of the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal investigation regarding price-fixing schemes within the auto parts industry. In 2012, TRW Deutschland, as well as a number of other companies, pleaded guilty to U.S. charges of conspiring to fix prices on certain safety items including seat belts, airbags and steering wheels sold to two German auto makers located in the United States and abroad. As a result, TRW Deutschland has agreed to pay $5.1 million in fines.

In September of this year, just two weeks prior to the U.S. TRW safety systems price-fixing class action settlement, TRW’s supplier agreed to a $5.4 million settlement to resolve payor plaintiffs’ claims in the Automotive Antitrust MDL. Yazaki Corp. was also involved in this settlement and agreed to a $76 million payment to car buyer plaintiffs. Thus far in the price-fixing MDL, the total amount of the settlement fund available to consumer plaintiffs is estimated at over $100 million.

The dealerships are represented by Brendan Frey, Gerard V. Mantese and David Hansma of Mantese Honigman Rossman and Williamson PC; Don Barrett, Brian Herrington and David McMullan of Barrett Law Group PA; Jonathan W. Cuneo, Joel Davidow, Daniel Cohen, Michael J. Flannery, Victoria Romanenko and Yifei Li of Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca LLP; and Shawn M. Raiter of Larson King LLP, among others.

The TRW Safety Systems Price Fixing Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Occupant Safety Systems — Dealership Actions, Case No. 2:12-cv-00602, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division.

The TRW Price Fixing MDL is In re: Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 2:12-md-02311, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division.