Southfield, Mich.-based Lear Corp. will ask a bankruptcy court judge in New York later this month to sign off on an $8.75 million settlement to a Detroit lawsuit involving automotive supplier price-fixing over the previous decade, Crain’s Detroit Business reported today. The manufacturer of interior systems including seats and electronics, with $16.2 billion 2013 revenue and 122,000 employees, will pay that sum to resolve accusations it was a part of a conspiracy to bolster the prices of wire harness components between 2000 and 2010 in a multi-district litigation lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani in Detroit. The settlement agreements call for a $4.75 million payout to the lawsuit’s “direct purchasers,” or other auto companies that bought the parts at colluded prices, another $3 million to car buyer plaintiffs and about $1 million to auto dealerships that are also part of the court case. The agreement also calls for Lear to put up $370,263 of its own cash and obtain the rest out of assets held in reserve from the company’s previous chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization from 2009 for “disputed claims.”
