Oz high federal court quashes lower court ruling on price fixing

AUSTRALIAN shippers will resume their attack on Qantas and other major air cargo carriers for alleged price fixing after a high federal court judge quashed two rulings of a lower federal court.

Now that Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia has overturned a decision the Federal Court, the claim led by shipper Auskay International Manufacturing & Trade Pty Ltd's can go ahead, reported London's International Freighting Weekly.

In December 2009, the Federal Court struck out Auskay's charge brought on behalf of those who had paid for freight services provided by Qantas and other air freight carriers, reported Australian law firm Freehills in their account of the case.

But Qantas said Auskay's charge should be dismissed because it gave no reasonable cause of action as it failed to allege material facts relevant to Australian market, according to the Freehills account.

Justice Richard Tracey agreed, saying the accused were entitled to know in which Australian markets, and with whom, they were alleged to have engaged in blameworthy behaviour, some absent in the charges, Freehills noted.

The decision followed Justice Tracey's previous decision in Auskay versus Qantas in which Auskay's second amended statement of claim was struck out on similar grounds.

But with the latest ruling on essentially the same plea goes forward to charge Qantas, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines Cargo, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, Air New Zealand (Australia), Japan Airlines International and British Airways (BA) with price fixing.

The action is on behalf of a group defined simply as persons who spent over A$20,000 (US$17,700) on international air freight during the period that cartel pricing on fuel surcharges was alleged to have taken place.

Shippers' lawyer Brooke Dellavedova, principal at Maurice Blackburn, said: "In broad terms, the Full Court was satisfied with the statement of claim and set aside the order striking it out.

"We were extremely pleased with this excellent result, which means the case can now move forward into areas of more substance. Next steps are likely to include defences and discovery of documents," she said.

"The action is already brought on behalf of all group members, but it may be that, following the decision, more claimants come forward," Ms Dellavedova said.
(Source:www.schednet.com)