British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) lost an appeal in the European Union's Court of Justice (ECJ) against the EUR104 million (USD124 million) fine for participation in an air cargo cartel between 1999 and 2006.
The ECJ's ruling is related to a decision from March 2017 in which the European Commission fined eleven airlines for illegally colluding with each other to set fuel and security charges and in effect fixing prices of air cargo services. The fines totalled EUR776.5 million.
British Airways appealed against this decision primarily on procedural reasons, but the ECJ judges found the appeal unfounded and dismissed it in its entirety.
This year's European Commission's decision is a second in the case after the first one from 2010 has been later annulled by the ECJ on procedural grounds as a result of the airlines filing an appeal.
Other carriers fined by the European Commission are Air France (EUR182.9 million), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (EUR127.1 million), Cargolux (EUR79.9 million), Singapore Airlines (EUR74.8 million), SAS Scandinavian Airlines (EUR70.2 million), Cathay Pacific (EUR57.1 million), JAL - Japan Airlines (EUR35.7 million), Air Canada (EUR21 million), Martinair (Netherlands) (EUR15.4 million) and LATAM Airlines (EUR8.2 million).
The initial decision from 2010 also included a fine for Qantas in the amount of EUR8.8 million. The Australian airline decided not to appeal the decision which thus became final for it.
The cargo cartel also included Lufthansa and Swiss, but both airlines received full immunity from fines under the Commission's leniency programme, as they were the first to provide information about the cartel.
