British Airways and Korean Airlines agree to pay more than $300 million each in deal with Antitrust Division

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.