Air France-KLM loses case in prohibited price agreements for air freight transport.

Air France, KLM and Martinair still have to pay more than 325 million euros in fines because of prohibited price fixing for air freight transport. That has been decided by the General Court of the European Union. The part for KLM amounts to 127 million euros.

Eight other air freight carriers that were part of the cartel between the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2006 have also been fined for cartel formation. The total amount is almost 790 million euros.

According to the committee, the members of the cartel had already made mutual agreements for more than six years about, among other things, fuel and safety surcharges charged to shippers. For this, the watchdog in Brussels already imposed a fine of almost 800 million euros in 2010, but this was annulled by the European court in 2015 due to a formal error.

In 2017, the committee again imposed a fine, with only Martinair being assessed less highly. The French-Dutch airline group and the other eight airlines appealed this decision. They demanded annulment of the commission's decision.

In addition to Air France, KLM and Martinair, British Airways, Air Canada, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, LAN Chile (now LATAM) and SAS participated in the cartel. Lufthansa was also involved, but escaped a fine because it brought the abuses to the European Commission. The same applies to its subsidiary Swiss.

The Court of First Instance makes a slightly different calculation than the Commission in the final settlement. For example, the fines for Japan Airlines, Air Canada, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, SAS Cargo and Lan Chile are slightly reduced for each, for different reasons.

The parties can appeal within two months to the European Court of Justice, of which the General Court is a part. Air France-KLM is still investigating whether such an appeal is feasible, reports a spokeswoman. At the end of last year, the aviation combination had reserved 350.6 million euros for the payment of any cartel fines. In the event of an appeal, the fine does not yet have to be paid.