OFT to issue BA – Virgin price fixing findings in the summer
06.06.11
The Office of Fair Trading will announce its decision on whether or not British Airways must pay a £121.5 million fine for price fixing with Virgin Atlantic this summer, according to a report in the Telegraph.
BA has already paid a US fine of around £150 million in full and agreed to pay the OFT fine four years ago. However, it reassessed its position after the collapse of a criminal case brought by the OFT against BA executives Martin George, Andrew Crawley, Alan Burnett and Iain Burns last year when thousands of extra emails came to light. According to reports at the time, BA had intended to use evidence disclosed at that criminal trial to challenge the civil case.
The allegations of price fixing relate to colluding with competitors, including Virgin Atlantic, on fuel surcharges on tickets between July 2004 and April 2006, which meant passengers were overcharged. Virgin Atlantic alerted the authorities to the price fixing so escaped prosecution, although there were some reports when the criminal case collapsed that this might be challenged.
A spokeswoman for the OFT said a fine had been agreed in 2007, but that no penalty had been imposed on BA because the OFT had put the civil case on hold pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings. She said the regulator had been analysing new and different pieces of evidence that came out during the criminal case. Those findings will be revealed in the third quarter and only after that will the OFT make a decision on the whether the fine should remain, be reduced or revoked altogether.
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