Airlines face inquiry for possible cargo price-fixing
NEW YORK — More than a dozen airlines around the world had their offices searched or were otherwise contacted by U.S. and EU investigators probing the possibility of illegal price fixing in the air cargo business.
Officials with the European Commission and U.S. Department of Justice have provided few details about the probe and the searches that were carried out on Tuesday.
However, one of the airlines targeted, SAS AB’s SAS Cargo in Copenhagen, Denmark, said the EU has alleged that cooperation among airlines began in 2000 and involved agreements about surcharges imposed by airlines to offset certain external costs.
Among the costs, according to SAS, are surcharges on fuel, added security after the Sept. 11 attacks and premiums for war-risk insurance after the start of the war in Iraq. SAS said in a statement it does not suspect any violations at its operations.
The raids on Tuesday involved only possible price fixing in air cargo, EU antitrust spokesman Jonathan Todd said Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium.
When asked if there was also an investigation into collusion in setting fuel surcharges for passenger flights, he said: “I cannot make any comment on any other investigation that may or may not be going on. At any one time, the commission has several hundreds of antitrust investigations going on, of which only a small proportion are in the public domain.”
The commission said Tuesday that the raids were a preliminary step in investigations into suspected cartels and it does not mean the companies raided are guilty of anti-competitive behavior.
Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona confirmed Tuesday that U.S. investigators were working with the EU and other foreign authorities in the probe but declined to provide any details of the investigation.
The largest U.S. airline, AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, said it has received a subpoena from the Justice Department but has not been told it was a target of the investigation, spokesman Tim Wagner said. “And unlike some other airlines,” he said, American didn’t receive a search warrant. He said the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline would cooperate fully with investigators.