DANFOSS Flensburg GmbH, formerly Danfoss Compressors GmbH, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $3m criminal fine in the US for its role in the international compressor price-fixing conspiracy.
The announcement yesterday by the US Department of Justice is the latest in a string of cases following raids by anti-trust authorities on a number of refrigeration compressor manufacturers' offices across Europe, the US and Brazil in February 2009.

A number of fines have already been imposed on companies including Embraco, Panasonic, and Tecumseh but this is the first case involving Danfoss.

Just last week three former executives of Panasonic, Embraco and Tecumseh were indicted in Detroit for their role in the price fixing conspiracy.

The one-count felony charge filed yesterday in US District Court in Detroit, accused Danfoss of participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of  light commercial compressors sold in the United States and elsewhere from as early as Oct. 14, 2004, and continuing until about Sept. 6, 2007. 

According to the plea agreement, which is subject to court approval, Danfoss agreed to co-operate with the department's ongoing refrigerant compressor investigation.

'The department's investigation into the international conspiracy to fix the prices of refrigerant compressors is ongoing,' said Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. 
According to the charge, Danfoss and co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by agreeing during meetings and conversations to coordinate prices of light commercial compressors sold in the United States and elsewhere.  As a part of the conspiracy, Danfoss and co-conspirators exchanged information on sales of light commercial compressors to monitor and enforce adherence to the agreed-upon prices.

Danfoss is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum $100m fine for corporations.  The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.