14 DAY TRIAL // The US Department of Justice has announced that Panasonic is pleading guilty to the charges it was saddled with.
Those charges are that it illegally fixed the prices of automotive parts and battery cells, thus inflating production cost of notebooks and cars.
The fines total $56.5 million (€42.95 million), which isn't too much to handle for a high-profile company like this one.
I would not have been shocked to hear that a slap on the wrist would be the full punishment, but that's not the case this time.
In fact, some Panasonic executives will be serving jail time for doing what they did.
"These investigations illustrate our efforts to ensure market fairness for US businesses by bringing corporations to justice when their commercial activity violates antitrust laws," said Joseph S. Campbell, the FBI criminal investigative division deputy assistant director.