Australia: Air NZ loses price-fixing appeal in High Court

The High Court has dismissed an appeal by Air New Zealand and Garuda Indonesia against an earlier ruling the airlines had breached Australia’s competition law in relation to price-fixing arrangements.

The development in the air cargo cartel case is a win for the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

“This is a significant win for the ACCC in the long-running, highly contested air cargo cartel proceedings,” ACCC commissioner Sarah Court said yesterday.

In a case that ran for 57 days, the original judge in 2014 found Air NZ and Garuda were parties to understandings that amounted to price-fixing. The understandings related to surcharges when carrying cargo from particular foreign ports into Australia.

But that judge also found the air cargo services market the airlines competed in was at the port where they got the cargo, not in Australia — a requirement to establish a breach of section 45(2) of the Trade Practices Act that was in force then.

However, the ACCC successfully appealed in 2016, with the full Federal Court finding the market for the services was in Australia.

In dismissing the appeals of the two airlines with costs yesterday, the High Court found that the presence of customers in Australia needed to be taken into account in deciding whether the market was in Australia.

The ACCC said the matter would now go back to the Federal Court for a hearing on relief, including penalty.

Full Content: Aircargo News

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