Qantas ordered to cartel hearing
A report by Scott Rochfort in the Sydney Morning Herald says that the US Department of Justice has summonsed several senior Qantas freight managers to San Francisco to appear at an investigation into illegal price-fixing between international airlines.
As part of a plea deal with US authorities, Qantas will help the Department of Justice and the FBI to compile evidence against other airlines alleged to be involved in the illegal cartel.
It is three months since Qantas admitted being part of the cartel. Under a plea deal Qantas paid a $US61 million ($66 million) criminal fine to the US Government. “We are continuing to co-operate with investigations being undertaken by US authorities,” a Qantas spokesman confirmed to the Herald yesterday.
“A small number of Qantas freight employees are being interviewed in the US this week as part of the US Department of Justice’s ongoing investigations into other parties alleged [to have participated] in the cartel.”
While more than 30 other airlines are alleged to have been involved in the cartel, so far only Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Lufthansa and Korean Air have admitted their guilt in the US. They have been given relatively light penalties compared to the fines possible for airlines found guilty of the conduct.
However, the airlines are not exempt from the billions of dollars in damages being claimed in various class actions from Australia, the US, Europe and Africa.
Qantas has yet to admit guilt elsewhere, despite making a $64 million provision in its accounts last month for more fines.
Qantas said the freight employees summoned were not the six former and current managers excluded from a plea agreement that protected the airline’s senior management from further prosecution in the US.
The US Department of Justice interviews come as international regulators continue to tighten the noose in one of the biggest cartel-breaking operations in history. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is poised to act, 19 months after launching its own inquiry.
Court documents stemming from a Federal Court battle between the ACCC and Korean Air – which has refused to hand over documents – revealed on Friday that the regulator’s investigations were in their final stages.
A Report by The Mole
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