US: Antitrust class action lawsuit filed against four largest airlines

Keller Rohrback LLP has filed an antitrust class action lawsuit against the four largest commercial airlines in the United States — American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines — claiming that the airlines and their co-conspirators conspired to raise the prices of air passenger transportation services for flights within the United States.

According to the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, as a result of several airline mergers beginning in 2008, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines now control approximately 80% of the domestic air passenger seats. During that period, they have taken steps to limit capacity growth in order to keep air fares artificially high.

The complaint claims that with jet fuel prices dropping by 40 percent since last year, ticket prices should have followed. That they didn’t was the result of the airlines’ anticompetitive activities in violation of federal antitrust laws, including the Sherman and Clayton Acts.

The lawsuit seeks damages for individuals who have purchased airline tickets at artificially high prices due to the airlines alleged agreement to restrict capacity.

Full content: Business Wire

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