Polar fined for price fixing
Polar is certainly not the only one, either.
September 3, 2010
Polar Air Cargo, which is majority owned by Atlas Air Worldwide, has agreed to plead guilty in a price-fixing case and will pay a USD$17.4 million fine, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.
The company agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to fix the prices of air cargo shipments between the United States and Australia between 2000 and 2003, according to court documents released by the Justice Department.
William Flynn, president and chief executive of AAWW, said the company had "cooperated fully" with the Justice Department on the probe, which has ensnared more than a dozen airlines.
"Our board of directors and management take our obligation to abide by all applicable laws, including laws regarding competitive conduct, very seriously," Flynn said in a press release.
Seventeen airlines have pleaded guilty or agreed to do so in the department's long-running probe into price-fixing in air cargo, the Justice Department said.
The airlines have paid more than USD$1.6 billion in criminal fines, and four executives have been sentenced to a prison term.
Antitrust enforcers in Australia and the European Union, among others, have also prosecuted air cargo price fixing cases.
Major airlines caught up in the probe include British Airways, Korean Air Lines, Qantas Airways, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Air France, EL AL and Nippon Cargo Airlines.
(Reuters)