EU Court Overturns Airlines’ Price-Fixing Fines
Joe Cortez December 19, 2015
Air Canada among several international air carriers who have been absolved of fines in the overturning of European Commission decision.
Air Canada may no longer be responsible for $20 million in fines to the European Union, after a 2010 accusation over price fixing was overturned in court. The Canadian Press reports the European Commission ruling alleging their part in the scheme was overturned by the General Court of the European Union, five years after the fines were originally handed down.
In the 2010 decision, the European Commission accused Air Canada and ten other airlines, including Air France, British Airways, Japan Airlines and KLM, of conspiring to fix prices on cargo shipments heading into Europe. The alleged scheme took place between 1999 and 2006, before fellow air carrier Lufthansa worked with the Commission by providing information about the accused cartel.
The General Court ultimately found that the ruling was contradictory. Although the Commission discovered four separate infringements during their investigation, the ruling and fines were based on the entire six-year span the cartel allegedly operated. As a result of what the court called “significant internal inconsistencies,” the judges ultimately overturned the previous ruling.
Airlines’ reactions to the overturned decision were far stretched. While Air Canada praised the result by calling the original decision “ill-founded” to the Canadian Press, British Airways told Financial Times they were simply “reviewing the judgment.”
Although the judges ultimately backed the airlines, the ruling fell short of absolving the airlines of guilt. Instead, BBC News reports the previous decision “did not allow them to determine the nature and scope of the infringement or infringements that they were alleged to have committed.”
[Photo: Getty]
