China has levied a record fine totalling 1.24bn yuan ($202m; £121m) on twelve Japanese car parts companies for price-fixing.

The country’s anti-monopoly regulator said the companies were found to have colluded to reduce competition.

Japan’s Sumitomo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric were among the firms that received the heaviest fines.

The ruling comes amid a crackdown on multinational firms found to have broken China’s anti-monopoly laws.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement the Japanese firms “improperly affected the pricing for auto parts, entire vehicles and bearings”.

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