Logistics giant reveals it has legal dispute in US and Germany with a swag of airlines
Qantas shares may be rising partly on the oil price fall but past sins have come back to haunt the national carrier in the form of DB Schenker’s pursuit of the company and other airlines for historic cartel activity.
http://www.fullyloaded.com.au/news/logistics/1208/qantas-comes-clean-on-cargo-cartels/
The German-headquartered international logistics provider is seeking the equivalent of about A$3 billion is suits filed in Germany and the United States related to the global price-fixing cartel in operation during the 1990s and 2000s.
Qantas is named in both suits in a development that has been ongoing for a year but which Schenker’s government-owned parent, Deutsche Bahn (DB), has now commented on.
The impetus for the action was apparent unhappiness at the settlement price on offer.
According to DB, a number of air cargo carriers in the US entered into settlement agreements, both 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 class action lawsuits.
DB head of group regulatory, competition and antitrust Christopher Rother has been quoted as saying those offers “were inadequate”.
The cartel was the subject of concerted antitrust action by regulators internationally and by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission domestically from 2006.
The US suit names Air France, KLM, Martinair, Cargolux, SAS, Qantas and All Nippon Airways.
In Germany, Lufthansa Cargo, Swiss Airlines, British Airways, Cargolux, SAS, Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Qantas face a lawsuit filed last December.
Qantas shares have risen steadily since falling to $1.28 in mid-October and gained traction after that month’s annual general meeting to be sitting at $2.05, despite alarming annual results in August that revealed last year’s record statutory loss after tax of $2.8 billion.