SIA Cargo to pay $48m fine for price-fixing

The cargo unit of Singapore Airlines will set aside US$48 million in the current financial year as provision for an anti-trust fine that it has agreed to pay the US Department of Justice, reported Dow Jones Newswires.

Singapore Airlines Cargo had earlier agreed to settle the antitrust investigation started by the US Department of Justice in 2006 and pleaded guilty to fixing prices on air-cargo shipments and will pay a $48 million fine.

The agreement will bring the US Department of Justice's air cargo investigations to a close for Singapore Airlines Cargo, the company said.

The US Justice Department said that Singapore Airlines Cargo engaged in a conspiracy to fix prices from 2002 until at least February 2006.

Prosecutors said the Singapore Airlines unit and other air cargo shippers held meetings and conversations in which they agreed on shipping rates, in violation of federal anti-trust law. The shippers also monitored and enforced each other's adherence to the price-fixing agreements, prosecutors said.

Singapore Airlines Cargo is the 20th airline to plead guilty or agree to plead guilty to fixing prices on air cargo. The Justice Department said it has collected more than $1.7 billion in fines in the long-running investigation.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)