Cathay Pacific among airlines sued over price-fixing
German logistics firm seeks damages of US$2.5b from airlines allegedly engaged in cargo cartels
German railway operator Deutsche Bahn is seeking damages of about US$2.5 billion from more than a dozen airlines, including Cathay Pacific Airways, arising from lawsuits that allege the carriers engaged in cargo cartels.
Deutsche Bahn yesterday said the damages sought by its logistics subsidiary Schenker amounted to US$370 million in the United States and US$2.25 billion in Germany as a result of an alleged global price-fixing cartel between 1999 and 2006.
It said the US portion could increase to an estimated US$1.1 billion if a court tripled the amount that Schenker was seeking in the US case.
Schenker filed the German lawsuit in December last year in Cologne, alleging that defendants including Cathay, Deutsche Lufthansa, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Swiss Airlines, Cargolux, SAS, Air Canada, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines and Qantas Airways were involved in a conspiracy to fix fuel and security surcharges.
Cathay could not make an immediate comment yesterday.
In August, Schenker filed a complaint against Air France, KLM, Martinair, Cargolux, Qantas, SAS and All Nippon Airways in the district court in New York. The complaint alleged that the airlines violated US antitrust laws.
All defendants named in Schenker's complaint in the US pleaded guilty in Department of Justice proceedings, the German company said.
"This action arises from a secret and unlawful global conspiracy undertaken and engaged in by defendants and numerous co-conspirator airfreight carriers during the period from late 1999 until 2006 and thereafter to fix, raise, maintain, and/or stabilise prices of airfreight shipping services, including the prices for air cargo shipments to, from, and within the United States," said the complaint in the US case.
Schenker is the latest international freight forwarder to pursue civil litigation in an effort to recover damages from air cargo carriers.
A number of carriers in the US entered into settlement agreements with class-action plaintiffs and individual claimants in order to avoid protracted civil lawsuits.
Schenker agreed to settlements with some carriers but opted out of the settlement agreements by the named defendants in connection with the US class-action lawsuit.
