EU Price Fix Next Step

     The European Commission said Friday, December 21, it had sent “Statements of Objections” to “alleged participants” in ongoing global air cargo price fixing investigations, but didn’t say what companies it had contacted.
     A Statement of Objections is a formal step in Commission antitrust investigations, which basically establishes charges.
SAS Group has confirmed it is being investigated for anti-competitive practices by the EU Commission.
     The Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice were both looking into SAS Cargo, FT learned.
     SAS Group said it would not comment further on the alleged infringements of EC competition law.
     "Infringement of competition rules is entirely unacceptable and we condemn it unreservedly," said SAS Group CEO Mats Jansson.
     Earlier this year, British Airways, for example, was charged by various international authorities and agreed to pay hundreds of millions in fines related to cargo price fixing, while other class action suits are pending. Many other European and international airlines have also been implicated, and forwarding companies including Schenker, Kuehne + Nagel, and Panalpina indicated they were cooperating in inquiries into their businesses that came to light in October.
     The Commission’s news Friday follows the most recent chapter in what the Australian press has called “the world’s largest and most far reaching anti-cartel investigation” – ongoing since 2006 - when in late November, Qantas said it had also struck a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice.
     In its deal Qantas said it would pay a U.S. $61 million fine related to “illegal price fixing conduct within its freight division. The U.S. D.O.J., in its charges said Qantas engaged in a conspiracy to eliminate competition by fixing the rates for shipments of cargo to and from the United States and elsewhere from at least January 2000 to February 2006.
      The European Commission’s statement on Friday continued: “The addressee of a Statement of Objections can reply in writing to the Statement of Objections, setting out all facts known to it which are relevant to its defense against the objections raised by the Commission. The party may also request an oral hearing to present its comments on the case.
     “The Commission may then take a decision on whether conduct addressed in the Statement of Objections is compatible or not with the EC Treaty’s antitrust rules. Sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the procedure,” the Commission wrote.