WELLINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Qantas Airways Limited (QAN.AU) and British Airways PLC (BAIRY) are both cooperating with the New Zealand Commerce Commission over an alleged price fixing case on freighting cargo being taken against 13 international airlines, the watchdog said Monday.
Commission Chair Paula Rebstock told Dow Jones Newswires the two airlines, each named in the action, could cut "extensive" potential penalties in half by cooperating.
She said another unnamed airline had taken advantage of the commission's policy of giving immunity to the first member a cartel to inform and, as a result, she was confident of success in the case that was filed in Auckland's High Court Monday.
The Commerce Commission alleges airlines throughout the world colluded to raise the price of freighting cargo by imposing fuel surcharges for more than nine years, affecting the price of cargo both into and out of New Zealand.
The watchdog alleges the airlines entered an illegal global agreement in 1999/2000 under the auspices of the trade organization International Air Transport Association.
Air New Zealand (AIR.NZ), 76% owned by the government and named in the action, said it had not received papers from the commission and would only comment after it had received them.
-By Simon Louisson, Dow Jones Newswires; 64-4-471-5990; simon.louisson@dowjones.com
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Publié le 14 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones