British Airways and Korean Airlines agree to pay more than $300 million each in deal with Antitrust Division
Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.03.07
The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice announced on August 1, 2007 that two major airlines will plead guilty to charges that they conspired with other major airlines to fix prices for passenger and cargo services. Each airline will pay more than $300 million in fines for conduct that affected U.S. passengers and shippers.
In the U.S., both British Airways and Korean Airlines were charged with conspiring with competitors to fix rates, including fuel and security surcharges, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. §1).
Also on August 1, the United Kingdom’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that British Airways had agreed to pay roughly $275 million in fines to that agency. The timing of these announcements demonstrates close coordination between U.S. and foreign antitrust authorities.
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
