DB Schenker seeks $2.5bn in cargo cartel compensation

German logistics giant DB Schenker is seeking estimated damages of $2.5bn after filing lawsuits in US and Germany against airlines involved in a global air cargo cartel between 1999 and 2006.
It has warned that the total damages could add up to more than $3.3bn.
The parent company, German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, said that its logistics subsidiary will seek approximately $370m in the US and $2.2bn in Germany – including interest — from air cargo carriers found guilty by the US Department of Justice, the European Commission and other international authorities for operating a global price-fixing cartel.
The US portion could increase to an estimated $1.1bn if the court awards treble damages in the case.
DB Schenker, booking 1m tonnes of airfreight last year and with an estimated seven per cent market share of global airfreight, is the latest international forwarder to pursue civil litigation in an effort to recover significant damages from air cargo carriers that conspired to fix fuel and security surcharges from 1999 until 2006.
In August, divisional corporate parent Schenker AG filed a complaint against Air France, KLM, Martinair, Cargolux, Qantas, SAS and All Nippon Airways in the Eastern District of New York.
The complaint alleges that, in coordinating surcharge pricing for shipments to, from and within the US, the airlines violated US antitrust laws.
All defendants named in the Schenker AG complaint pleaded guilty in Department of Justice proceedings.

The German lawsuit, filed in December 2013 in Cologne, alleges defendants Deutsche Lufthansa, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Swiss Airlines, Cargolux, SAS, Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines and Qantas were involved in the same conspiracy affecting airfreight shipments worldwide.
That lawsuit was filed last year in order to avoid any statute of limitations in the case.
A number of air cargo carriers in the US entered into settlement agreements both with class action plaintiffs and individual claimants in order to avoid protracted civil lawsuits.
Schenker AG agreed to settlements with some carriers but opted out of the settlement agreements by the named defendants in connection with the class action lawsuit.

Air Cargo News has approached a number of airlines for comment on the lawsuit.
Air France said: "Please be informed that our companies’ policy is to never comment those subjects." 
Lufthansa Cargo referred to statements in the 2013 annual report: "Various cargo airlines, including Lufthansa Cargo AG and Swiss International Air Lines AG, were involved in a cargo cartel in the period between December 1999 and February 2006. 
"Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Cargo AG and Swiss International Air Lines AG are at risk of civil claims for damages by customers in Germany, the UK, Norway, Australia, Israel and the Netherlands."
The  statement continued: "The plaintiffs are mostly claiming for unspecified damages. At present, it is not possible to give a concrete assessment of the outcome of the proceedings and of the number and amount of any other claims that may be brought.
"When evaluating the risk, it should nonetheless be kept in mind that the European Commission’s decision on the cargo cartel, which the plaintiffs in the civil lawsuits generally refer to, is still not definitive. Moreover, an expert economic opinion commissioned by Lufthansa Cargo AG and Swiss International Air Lines AG comes to the conclusion that the cartel did not inflict any actual damage on customers.

"Even if there were damages (i. e. allegedly higher cartel prices), the court will have to examine whether the plaintiffs did not pass them on to their own customers (in the case of the freight forwarders) or whether they were indeed passed on to them (in the case of the final customers)."
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