European Commission reimposes fine of 776 million euros on 11 airlines

European Commissions reimposed a fine

March 18, 2017, Reporter : Big News Network, Reader : 441

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The fine that was first imposed in 2010, after a series of inspections were carried out on airlines, revealing a price-fixing cartel - has now been reimposed.> BNN

The European Commissions reimposed a fine of  776 million euros ($833 million) on 11 airlines for breaking anti-trust laws. 

The initial investigation had revealed that a series of inspections were carried out on airlines including Air France-KLM, British Airways and Cathay Pacific Airways and it was revealed that they were coordinating their prices for air cargo services.

The European Union’s General Court scrapped the initial fine in 2015 after slight discrepancies were pointed out in parts of the EC’s decision.

Now, the EU has said that the new documents fixed the errors.

Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said, “Working together in a cartel rather than competing to offer better services to customers does not fly with the Commission.

Vestager added that the fine would ensure the involved companies were sanctioned.

Lufthansa had, in 2015, alerted the EU to the cartel and requested immunity from any sanctions.

Lufthansa and its subsidiaries, Lufthansa Cargo and Swiss International Air Lines, were exempted from fines.

Further, the companies that cooperated with the investigation received a reduction of between 10 and 20 percent in their fines, except Singapore Airlines, which had to pay the full 74.8 million euros.

The fines were unchanged for all the airlines except for Martinair, whose fine was cut to 15.4 million euros from the 29.5 million euro amount set in 2010.

Meanwhile, Air France was fined 182.9 million euros, KLM was fined 127.1 million, British Airways was fined 104.4 million, Cargolux was fined 79.9 million and Singapore Airlines was fined 74.8 million.

Even Air Canada, Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines, LAN Chile and SAS were penalised.