By Cindy Silviana and Eveline Danubrata
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's anti-monopoly agency said on Tuesday that two separate companies making and distributing Yamaha and Honda motorbikes in the country were suspected of price fixing.
PT Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing and PT Astra Honda Motor were suspected of colluding to set prices for automatic scooters with an engine capacity of 110-125 cubic centimetres, officials at the Indonesian Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) told a court hearing.
Yamaha and Honda brands collectively account for about 97 percent of the market for this type of scooters in the Southeast Asian nation, said Syarkawi Rauf, the head of the independent watchdog. "In this industry, there's a huge room for coordination in order to control sales."
When asked about the KPPU's allegation on price-fixing, Mohammad Masykur, assistant general manager for marketing at Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing, part of Japan's Yamaha Group, said: "We did not do that."
A spokesman for Astra Honda Motor, which is jointly owned by Indonesian conglomerate PT Astra International Tbk and Japan's Honda Motor Co Ltd, also denied the allegation, saying it competed for customers in the market.
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"In a competition, there is no way that we or our competitor would be willing to see our market share drop," Ahmad Muhibbuddin, deputy head of corporate communication at Astra Honda Motor, said in an email.
The firm has been aggressively promoting its automatic scooters, as has its competitor, Muhibbuddin said. More brands have also entered the market as they see a huge potential and a conducive climate for business competition, he added.
A Jakarta court will rule on whether the two companies engaged in price-fixing.
The KPPU has presented what it said was evidence for the price fixing, including emails from a senior executive at Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing, to the court.
Yamaha and Honda are expected to give their official response next week, KPPU officials said.
If the charges are proven, the companies could be fined up to 25 billion rupiah ($1.9 million) each, according to the KPPU. But if any criminal wrongdoing is found, the fine could go up to 100 billion rupiah.
($1 = 13,088.00 rupiah)
(Additional reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Mark Potter)