Honda Settles 7 Suits Alleging Kickbacks

American Honda Motor Co. confirmed Friday that it has settled the last seven federal lawsuits by Honda dealers who claim they were denied their proper allocation of vehicles because they refused to pay kickbacks to executives of the Torrance-based company.

The agreement ends federal litigation in a case that has haunted Honda for more than a decade. But a criminal probe over the company’s handling of evidence in the case is still possible. American Honda, a subsidiary of Japan’s Honda Motor Co., still is being sued in state courts by three present or former dealers, including one near San Francisco, over the same bribery issue.

Honda officials declined to comment on the state litigation or the potential criminal investigation, but they said in a brief statement that the federal court cases, which were filed in Baltimore, “have been settled to the satisfaction of all parties involved. We are happy that these matters are now behind us.”

The latest settlement, outlined in court papers filed this week in the Baltimore federal court, calls for Honda to pay as much as $55 million to resolve claims by seven dealers who had opted out of a group suit settled in 1998 when Honda agreed to pay 1,800 of its U.S. dealers a total of $316 million in cash and Honda auto parts.

Under the new settlement, the seven dealers agreed to drop their bid for sanctions against Honda over its handling of evidence in the case.

But District Judge Frederick Motz, who has overseen the class-action litigation against American Honda, ordered the company not to destroy documents in the case pending prosecutors’ decision on whether to begin a criminal probe.

Bloomberg News was used in compiling this report.