NYK to pay $59.4 million fine for fixing prices on ro/ro cargo

“K” Line, CSAV were fined earlier this year in what the U.S. Justice Department said is an ongoing investigation.    The U.S. Justice Department said the Japanese shipping company NYK has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $59.4 million criminal fine for its involvement in a price-fixing conspiracy for roll-on/roll-off cargo, such as cars and trucks.
   According to a one-count felony charge filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, NYK conspired to suppress and eliminate competition by allocating customers and routes, rigging bids and fixing prices for the sale of international ocean shipments of ro/ro cargo to and from the United States and elsewhere.
   The government said NYK participated in the conspiracy from at least February 1997 until September 2012 and has agreed to cooperate with the DOJ’s ongoing antitrust investigation.
   The plea agreement is subject to court approval. NYK is the third company to agree to plead guilty in this investigation, bringing the total agreed-upon fines to over $135 million. In September, “K” Line agreed to plead guilty and pay a $67.7 million criminal fine, and in February Chile’s CSAV agreed to plead guilty and pay an $8.9 million fine over similar charges.
   “This is another step in the effort to restore competition in the ocean shipping industry to the benefit of U.S. consumers,” said Bill Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, in a statement. “Including today’s charges, three companies have now agreed to plead guilty to participating in this long-running conspiracy. We are not done. Our investigation is ongoing.”
   According to the charge, NYK and its co-conspirators conspired by agreeing on prices, allocating customers, agreeing to refrain from bidding against each another and exchanging customer pricing information. The department said the companies then charged fees in accordance with those agreements for international ocean shipping services for certain ro/ro cargo to and from the United States and elsewhere at collusive and non-competitive prices.
   NYK is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.