Australia: ACCC air freight fight crashes and burns

A federal court in Australia has cleared Air New Zealand of allegations of participating in a price-fixing cartel, reports say.

Air New Zealand, along with PT Garuda Indonesia, were victorious in efforts to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the firms of participating in a global price manipulation cartel to hike air freight service costs.

The Australian Federal Court dismissed the charges initiated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which accused the airlines and several others of collusion. Air New Zealand and PT Garuda were the only two to challenge the ACCC’s ruling.

In its decision, the court found that “because the Commission’s case was limited pin all but one minor case] to flights from airports outside Australia into airports inside Australia I have concluded that no market in Australia was involved.”

The ACCC found the airlines hat conspired to manipulate charges and harm competition on routes involving Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia.

Full content: New Zealand Herald

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