TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japan Fair Trade Commission has decided to file a criminal complaint with the top prosecutor against three major bearing producers on suspicion that they have run a cartel to jack up the prices of bearings for use in automobiles and industrial machinery, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The three -- NSK Ltd., NTN Corp. and Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. -- allegedly concluded a cartel agreement with another bearing maker, JTEKT Corp., to push up the prices of the automobile and industrial machinery bearings and carried it out in 2010, the sources said.

JTEKT will likely be exempted from the criminal complaint as it voluntarily reported the creation of the cartel in July last year before the anti-cartel buster launched the investigation, they said.

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