Japan's antitrust watchdog has found that a Toyota Motor Corp. subsidiary forced about 50 subcontractors to store auto parts molds without paying the costs and plans to warn the group company to take measures to prevent a recurrence, a source familiar with the matter said Sunday.

Toyota Customizing & Development Co., in which Toyota holds a 90.5 percent stake, has admitted to violating the subcontract law, the sources said.

The subsidiary, which makes auto parts, ambulances and racing cars, allegedly forced around 50 suppliers to retain more than 650 molds and inspection instruments for parts used in its past vehicles, even though it did not plan to place new orders.

The suppliers apparently complied as they feared losing orders from Toyota Customizing & Development.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission also suspects that the Toyota group company returned over 50 million yen ($310,000) worth of parts to more than 60 suppliers without valid reasons.

The FTC issued a warning to Nissan Motor Co. in March for illegally reducing payments to 36 subcontractors, with the underpayments totaling more than 3 billion yen ($19 million) over about two years.

==Kyodo

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