More Settlements Reached in Air Cargo Class Action Litigation

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Settlements totaling $150 million have reportedly been reached with most of the remaining defendants in an antitrust class action lawsuit against a group of air cargo service providers. If approved, these class action settlements will resolve the claims against all but two defendants in the litigation.

The class action settlements with Air China Limited, Air China Cargo Company Limited, Polar Air Cargo LLC and Polar Air Cargo Worldwide Inc. bring the total amount in air cargo antitrust settlements to $1.2 billion.

The Polar Air defendants agreed to pay $100 million and the Air China defendants agreed to pay $50 million to settle the litigation. The defendants deny any wrongdoing.

“We are pleased to be able to provide additional restitution to our clients and the class with these new settlements,” Hollis Salzman, co-lead counsel for the plaintiff Class said in a statement. “After a decade of tireless preparation, including taking depositions around the world and analyzing over 12 million pages of documents, we are now very much looking forward to trying our case against the final two defendants.”

The two holdout defendants, Air India and Air New Zealand, are scheduled to face trial in September of this year.

The air cargo antitrust class action lawsuit was initially filed in 2006, and accused many of the world’s biggest airlines of engaging in a global conspiracy to artificially inflate the price of air cargo shipping services.

In July 2015, a judge certified a Class of all consumers who purchased shipping services directly from the defendants between Jan. 1, 2000 and Sept. 30, 2006.

Other settling defendants include Korean Air Lines, which agreed to pay $115 million; Singapore Airlines and China Airlines, which have each agreed to pay $90 million; Cathay Pacific Airways, which agreed to pay $60 million; and Asiana Airlines, which has agreed to pay $55 million to resolve the litigation.

In November, a New York federal judge gave final approval to the Korean Air Lines, Singapore Airlines, China Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways class action settlements.

In addition to these antitrust settlements, 21 different air cargo providers have agreed to criminal fines of more than $1.8 billion.

More information about the airline price-fixing class action settlements was not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

The Class is represented by Hollis L. Salzman and Meegan Hollywood of Robins Kaplan LLP; Robert N. Kaplan, Gregory K. Arenson and Gary L. Specks of Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP; Howard J. Sedran and Austin B. Cohen of Levin Fishbein Sedran & Berman; and Michael D. Hausfeld, Brent W. Landau, Hilary K. Scherrer and Melinda R. Collidge of Hausfeld LLP.

The Air Cargo Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1775, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

UPDATE: A new settlement has been reached with 10 airlines to resolve Air Cargo Shipping Services antitrust allegations in a class action lawsuit. Click here to file a Claim Form.

UPDATE 2: On Oct. 6, 2016, a federal judge signed off on the last few settlements ending a decade-long air cargo antitrust litigation.