Cathay Pacific Airways pays A$11.7m fine to settle cargo price-fixing case
Australian court approves deal but carrier still has other suits pending over role in cargo cartel
Cathay Pacific Airways agreed to pay a fine of A$11.75 million (HK$95.5 million) in an air cargo price-fixing case in Australia.
The Federal Court of Australia approved the settlement between Cathay and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission yesterday.
The carrier is also subject to proceedings in the United States, the European Union and South Korea for its role in a global air cargo cartel, which had kept fuel surcharges and other surcharges undifferentiated when the airlines moved cargo to and from those places in the past.
The case brought by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, remains unsettled. Cathay has appealed to the EU’s General Court against the EC’s decision to impose a €57 million (HK$577.5 million) fine.
“We are awaiting the decision from that court,” a Cathay spokesman said.
The EC fined 11 carriers including Cathay a total of €800 million in 2010.
The ACCC instituted proceedings against Cathay in April 2009, accusing it and 13 other airlines of fixing the fuel surcharge, security surcharge and rates on air cargo among themselves.