Freight forwarder makes surcharge plea
16 / 10 / 2012
Yamato Global Logistics has agreed to plead guilty pay a US$2.3m fine for its role in the fuel surcharges conspiracy.
According to the one count felony charge filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the Japanese company engaged in a "conspiracy to fix and to impose certain freight forwarding service fees, including fuel surcharges," from September 2002 until November 2007 from Japan to the US.
Scott Hammond, deputy assistant attorney general for the antitrust division’s criminal enforcement program, says: “Consumers ultimately were forced to pay higher prices on the goods they buy every day as a result of the noncompetitive and collusive service fees charged by these companies.
“Prosecuting these kinds of global price-fixing conspiracies continues to be a high priority of the Antitrust Division.”
Including this latest plea 14 companies to pay more than $100 million in criminal fines according to the US Justice Department.
Yamato have also pledged to cooperate with the department’s ongoing antitrust investigation.
Earlier this week Kuehne+Nagel made a similar deal with DfJ investigators.
