Australia: Flight Centre fined US$12.5m after price-fix ruling

Flight Centre has been slapped with a US$12.5 million dollar fine for attempting to fix pricing with international airlines between 2005 and 2009.

The Full Federal Court of Australia handed down the penalty on the morning of Wednesday, April 11, following a successful high court appeal by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) against an earlier court decision in 2016.

The decision is the latest turning point in a six-year between the competition watchdog and Flight Centre, which has shown the travel agent lose an initial court case before winning an appeal and then subsequently losing another ACCC appeal to the High Court.

The ACCC alleged that Flight Centre sought to enter into price fixing arrangements with three airlines where they would agree not to offer airfares on their own website that were cheaper than those offered by Flight Centre.

Flight Centre is now considering whether there are legal grounds to seek leave for another appeal against Wednesday’s judgement.

“This was a complex test case as evidenced by the contrasting judgements during the past six years,” Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner said in an ASX release on Wednesday.

Full Content: The Australian

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