Law360, New York (July 21, 2015, 3:54 PM EDT) -- In February of 2010, it was widely publicized that the FBI, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission and the European Commission had raided the offices of automotive wire harness suppliers as part of an international investigation into alleged price-fixing.[1] When this news broke, dozens of other firms were actively participating in ongoing price-fixing conspiracies (most of which had been in operation for several years) involving different automotive parts. Numerous plea agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice reached by producers of many of these parts show a conspiracy ending date on the month the raids were conducted.[2] These include plea agreements of manufacturers of electronic throttle bodies, variable valve timing devices, ignition coils and steering angle sensors. However, several plea agreements involving many other parts show a conspiracy ending well after the raids (some more than two years after the raids). These include plea agreements involving seatbelts, airbags, instrument panel clusters, bearings and automotive lighting fixtures. Why did manufacturers of these parts continue to collude after the very public announcement of antitrust enforcement raids? While new revelations of price-fixing in the automotive industry continue to come out, and research on this subject will develop over many years, the economics of deterrence provides some preliminary insights....