Japan Airlines To Pay USD$110 Mln For Price Fixing

[Gerald A]

April 17, 2008

Japan Airlines agreed to plead guilty to price fixing on international cargo shipments and pay a USD$110 million fine, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday.

In the plea agreement, which was filed in the US district court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday, Japan Airlines acknowledged conspiring to fix freight prices between 2000 and 2006, the Justice Department said.

British Airways and Korean Air Lines pleaded guilty last year and paid fines for participating in the conspiracy. In January, Qantas also pleaded guilty to price fixing.

British Airways and Korean Air each agreed to pay USD$300 million in fines each while Qantas agreed to pay USD$61 million. The European Union and Australia also have price fixing probes under way.

The Justice Department said Japan Airlines conspired to fix prices to ship products on certain trans-Pacific routes, according to court documents.

Japan Airlines told a Japanese newspaper in October 2007 that it anticipated roughly JPY20 billion yen (USD$171 million) in fines from a global price fixing probe by US and EU officials.

The plea agreements are part of a continuing, wide-ranging investigation of the air transport industry by the Justice Department's antitrust division.

In February 2006, US and European officials raided airlines on both sides of the Atlantic as part of the probe.

(Reuters)

Gerald