South Korea’s antitrust watchdog is investigating Japanese and German car parts manufacturers for price-fixing on products they sold to local automakers, a source said Wednesday.

The names of the companies under investigation and the parts supplied have not been made public, but the Fair Trade Commission insider said Hyundai Motor Co. and its corporate cousin, Kia Motors Corp., bought the parts for the past several years. The two carmakers are flagships of Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s fifth-largest automotive conglomerate.

The two companies sold some 8 million vehicles last year, and parts supplied by the foreign makers could have been used on quite a number of cars, the source said. “The five or so companies being checked are suspected of having contacted each other ahead of the bidding to coordinate the prices of parts they were going to sell,” the FTC source, who declined to be identified, said.

Such a practice allows suppliers to effectively control prices and pick in advance which company wins a particular bid. (Yonhap)