Qantas to pay $20m cartel fine
Geoff Easdown in the Herald Sun reports that Qantas yesterday consented to pay a $20 million fine after being caught out for a second time for its involvement in a global conspiracy to fix air cargo freight rates.
The settlement reached with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission follows a $68.7 million fine that US prosecutors imposed last year and the subsequent jailing of a former Qantas executive.
British Airways yesterday also agreed to pay a $5 million fine to the competition regulator over the same matter.
Both carriers are being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars by aggrieved customers, including more than 20 multinational companies.
ACCC chief Graeme Samuel said last night the settlements had yet to be signed off by a Federal Court judge.
“The recommended penalties reflect the serious nature of the cartel contraventions,” Mr Samuel said.
He said the penalty was “a very large share” of Qantas’ Australian market.
Geoff Dixon, the airline’s outgoing chief executive, apologised unreservedly for the conduct of those who took part in the scam.
“All Qantas employees are expected to comply with the law and we take any failure to comply very seriously,” Mr Dixon said.
The fines precede proposed Federal Government legislation to jail corporate cheats for 10 years or fine them up to $220,000 for cartel behaviour.
Corporations also risk a $10 million fine or three times the value gained from price fixing if found guilty under the proposed laws.
The freight scam operated from January 2000 until February 2006, when raids on airline offices around the globe uncovered an arrangement where airlines were colluding on freight charges.
They discovered that Qantas and a number of other carriers followed an index set up by Germany’s Lufthansa, where they informed each other on how and when freight surcharges were to apply.
The price fixing was applied through surcharges to cover fuel costs, terrorism and war risks.
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