That's because, as I understood it, the top brass did not know what was happening. When they did learn of it - they were horrified that their staff were breaking the law and showing themselves to be no better than BA. So they blew the gaff and claimed the upper hand for having owned up to breaking the law. BA were discovered to just be breaking the law - again.
That's how the claim goes, yes.
I can tell you though, that from my experience, BA were always completely and utterly paranoid about any issue of anti-competitive behaviour, and went through hoops to avoid any such suggestion. This extended to not even telling franchise carriers what was going on, so they found out at the same time as the public. I was shocked, genuinely shocked, that some people within BA did that.