JAL latest to admit to price fixing on cargo shipments

JAL latest to admit to price fixing on cargo shipments    Japan Airlines International has agreed to pay a $110 million criminal fine and plead guilty to federal charges of conspiring with its competitors to fix rates for international air cargo shipments, an e-mail from the trade law firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg said Tuesday.
   Two other airlines, British Airways and Korean Air Lines, previously entered into similar plea agreements with the U.S. Justice Department under which they were each fined $300 million. The settlement with JAL is part of an ongoing investigation by antitrust officials of the U.S. and other countries into allegations of anticompetitive practices in the air cargo industry. The probe has specifically targeted air freight carrier agreements regarding fuel, security and war-risk insurance charges.
   ST&R said it is pursuing claims against direct air freight shipping providers for damages resulting from their alleged conspiracy to impose excessively high surcharges for fuel, security and war-risk insurance.