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Panasonic fined $56.5 million over conspiracy to fix prices

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Well first of all, in this case it sounds like their SANYO division is in trouble, not the Panasonic one.(for batteries at least). Panasonic seems to be on the hook for lighting equipment and other automotive parts.

To be honest, the 56 million is not that big of a fine and overall this is a good thing. Remember what happened to LCD prices after they busted them for price fixing? The price pretty much went down to half of what it was in 2 years. This may actually speed up the adoption of EVs and bring prices down.
 
Wow, the eneloops were price fixed? I mean, $2 per AA battery really didn't break the bank for me... And they are still totally operable (I bought them back in 2008). Oh well, I seriously doubt this will have any effect on Tesla's operations.
 
$56.1 million is insignificant to Panasonic. Their energy division alone made $6.1 billion of revenue last year (even though they had a net loss of $209 million). I'm sure their price fixing gave them way more profit than that.

What probably will result is a drop in battery prices, which would help Tesla.