Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: EU General Court rejects EC’s €790M fine in airfreight cartel suit, (Dec 17, 2015)
Organizations Mentioned:Air Canada | Latam Airlines Group, SA
By Greg Hammond, J.D.
The General Court of the European Union has reversed a European Commission (EC) decision imposing approximately €790 million in fines against various airlines that purportedly conspired to fix the prices of freight services. The EC’s decision, according to the court, contradicted itself with regard to the grounds of the decision and its operative part.
According to the court, the grounds of the EC’s decision was based on a single cartel, constituting a single and continuous infringement with regard to all of the routes covered by the alleged cartel and in which all of the carriers at issue participated. The carriers, in the context of a single overall plan, purportedly coordinated their behavior concerning the development of the fuel and security surcharges and the payment of commissions on those surcharges to freight forwarders they worked with. Further, this coordination was said to have taken place at a worldwide level, the court noted, affecting simultaneously all the routes referred to in the EC’s decision.
The court determined, however, that the operative part of the decision refers to four separate single and continuous infringements or just one single and continuous infringement, liability for which was attributed only to the carriers that participated directly in the unlawful conduct referred to. The court consequently found that there is a contradiction between the grounds of the decision and its operative part. Furthermore, the court concluded that the inconsistencies in the contested decision were liable to infringe the applicant’s rights of defense and prevent the court from exercising its power of review.
The General Court therefore annulled the EC’s decisions with regard to Air Canada, Air France-KLM, Société Air France, Koninklijke Luchtyaart Maatschappij, British Airways, Cargolux Airlines International, Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines Corp., Japan Airlines Co., Latam Airlines Group, Lan Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa, Swiss, Martinair Holland, Qantas Airways, SAS, SAS Cargo Group, Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark-Norway-Sweden, Singapore Airlines Cargo, and Singapore Airlines.
News: Antitrust