Lawsuit alleges price fixing by five Class I U.S. railroads

Lawsuit alleges price fixing by five Class I U.S. railroads An antitrust lawsuit filed on behalf of railroad freight customers Monday alleges that five Class I freight railroads conspired to fix prices by adding questionable fuel surcharges.
   Filed in the U.S. District Court for New Jersey by Phoenix-based Dust Pro Inc. the lawsuit seeks class-action status to include other parties who shipped goods on one or more of the railroads since July 2003.
   Unspecified monetary damages are sought from the five railroads, which collectively, according to the lawsuit, control more than 90 percent of the rail freight traffic. The railroads named are:
   * CSX Transportation Inc., of Jacksonville, Fla.
   * Norfolk Southern Railway Co., of Norfolk, Va.
   * BNSF Railway Co., a subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., of Fort Worth, Texas.
   * Union Pacific Railroad Co., of Omaha, Neb.
   * Kansas City Southern Railway Co., of Kansas City.
   The lawsuit charges that the railroads 'restrained competition in the market' and 'realized billions of dollars in revenues ' in excess of their actual increase in fuel costs from the specific customers on whom they imposed the surcharge,' by colluding to add the fuel surcharges, despite the fees having no relationship to actual fuel costs.
   As precedent, the lawsuit referenced a January decision by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, which banned excessive fuel surcharges by railroads and imposed strict rules on the fees that many companies had credited with bolstering profits.