EC PUNISHES 11 AIRLINES WITH €800 MILLION FINE FOR CARGO CARTEL

The European Commission has fined 11 European carriers a total of €799.5 million for participating in an air cargo cartel. The airlines were charged with colluding over setting fuel and security charges in the period immediately after 9/11 until 2006, which the EC alleges resulted in increased prices for cargo shipping. EU competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, said the difficult operating environment after the terrorist attacks on New York was not an “acceptable reason to stop competing against each other,” and that they “always had an alternative”. He also rejected pleas from some airlines to reduce some of the fines, which