EU top court rejects Air France, others' fight against EU cargo cartel fine

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Air France KLM AIRF.PA, British Airways and their peers on Thursday lost their fight against EU cartel fines totalling 776 million euros ($916 million), ending a more than two-decade old saga.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Thursday the European Commission was right to punish the airlines for creating and running an air cargo cartel.

"The Court of Justice rejects almost all of the arguments put forward by the airlines. Only the appeal brought by SAS Cargo Group is upheld in part, on the grounds of errors made by the General Court in calculating the amount of the fine imposed on that airline", the Luxembourg-based court said in a statement.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, in 2017 reissued the fines to 11 airlines for taking part in the cartel, after a lower tribunal scrapped its first total fine of 799 million euros imposed in 2010 due to a procedural error.

Air France's 182.9 million euro fine was the highest, followed by KLM at 127.1 million. British Airways, which belongs to International Consolidated Airlines Group ICAG.L was fined 104 million euros.

In its ruling, the EU court reduced the total fines imposed on SAS to 62.85 million euros down from about 70 million euros.

Lufthansa LHAG.DE, which staved off a fine after it alerted the EU watchdog to the cartel, had also appealed the decision because it disagreed with the Commission's legal arguments.

The EU watchdog said the cartel fixed air freight services, fuel and security surcharges from December 1999 to February 2006.

The cases are C-367/22 P Air Canada v Commission, C-369/22 P Air France v Commission, C-370/22 P Air France-KLM v Commission, C-375/22 P LATAM Airlines Group and Lan Cargo v Commission, C-378/22 P British Airways v Commission, C-379/22 P Singapore Airlines and Singapore Airlines Cargo v Commission, C-380/22 P Deutsche Lufthansa and Others v Commission, C-381/22 P Japan Airlines v Commission, C-382/22 P Cathay Pacific Airways v Commission, C-385/22 P Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij v Commission, C-386/22 P Martinair Holland v Commission, C-401/22 P Cargolux Airlines v Commission and C-403/22 P SAS Cargo Group and Others v Commission.

($1 = 0.8471 euros)