"The European Commission has re-adopted a cartel decision against 11 air cargo carriers and imposed a fine totalling € 776 465 000 [about $833 million] for operating a price–fixing cartel. The Commission's original decision was annulled by the General Court on procedural grounds," the commission said in its statement.
The Commission said that in 2010 it fined 11 air cargo carriers almost 800 million euros over their participation in a cartel in 1999-2006, whose aim was to fix fuel and security surcharges.
Nearly all of the companies charged in 2010 appealed the decision in the EU General Court, which voided the Commission's decision in 2015 over a procedural error but without disproving that there had been a cartel.
The companies that were involved in the cartel include Air Canada, Air France-KLM, British Airways, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines, LAN Chile, Martinair, Qantas, SAS and Singapore Airlines.
The Commission said that another member "Lufthansa, and its subsidiary, Swiss International Air Lines, received full immunity from fines." According to media reports, Lufthansa and Swiss were exempted because they were the first to share the information about the cartel with the authorities.
The statement indicated that Air France, KLM and British Airways received the largest fines.
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