Update October 2010: Six international freight forwarding companies have agreed to pay criminal fines in the U.S. case totaling $50.3 million.
Update July 2010:Northwest Airlines, now part of Delta, has plead guilty and agreed to pay a $38 million fine and assist in the on-going investigation. Delta stressed that the illegal conduct occurred before it merged with Northwest.
Update Aug. 2009: In a private follow on action, Eastern District of New York Judge John Gleeson reversed a magistrates dismissal of price fixing claims on Twombly grounds citing the 15 guilty pleas in the case. Although the pleas did not necessarily establish the broad conspiracy alleged, they were sufficient to make the claims sufficiently plausible to survive a motion to dismiss.
Update April 2009: Three more cargo airlines have plead guilty and agreed to pay fines. Cargolux Airlines International (based in Luxembourg) agreed to pay $119 million, Japan’s Nippon Cargo Airlines agreed to pay $45 million, and Korea’s Asiana Airlines agreed to pay $50 million. Together airlines have not paid fines exceeding $1.6 billion, and the investigation is on-going.
Update January 2009: Three more cargo airlines have plead guilty and agreed to pay fines. LAN Cargo, and its subsidiaries agreed to pay $109 million, and El Al Israeli Airlines agreed to pay $15.7 million.
A former British Airways executive agreed to a $20,000 fine and eight months jail time in the DOJ’s ongoing investigation of the international air cargo industry. The joint US/EU, Korean probe began in 2006. By August 2007, international air shippers began admitting to fixing prices on air cargo shipments. To date, Air France-KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines, Korean Airlines, Martinair Holland, Qantas, SAS Cargo Group have all been fined. The British Airways official is the first foreign national to be charged.
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