Nippon Agrees to Air Cargo Price-Fixing Settlement

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A settlement agreement was reached in an air cargo price-fixing class action lawsuit filed against Nippon Cargo Airlines Co. Ltd., which alleged Nippon conspired with airline companies to artificially increase air cargo prices during the 2000s. The Nippon price- fixing class action settlement will resolve this and other allegations against the company, and in turn the carrier has agreed to pay $36.55 million to the plaintiffs and consumers.

The plaintiffs have submitted a motion for preliminary approval of the proposed Nippon class action settlement, which would establish a $36.35 million air cargo consumer settlement fund in addition to $200,000 to cover settlement notice and administration costs.

The plaintiffs have stated that they will continue to pursue their price-fixing claim against the other airlines allegedly involved in the air cargo price-fixing scheme. As per the terms of the air cargo price-fixing class action settlement, Nippon will be required to cooperate with the air cargo plaintiffs and to that end will provide witnesses, documents, and meetings to plaintiffs’ counsel.

The proposed Nippon air cargo price-fixing class action settlement would include a Class of individual consumers and entities “who purchased Airfreight Shipping Services for shipment to, from or within the United States directly from Settling Defendant, any other Defendant, of from their parents, predecessors, successors, subsidiaries, or affiliates, at any time during the period from January 1, 2000, up to and including September 11, 2006.”

At the beginning of this year, Nippon and the air cargo plaintiffs resumed price-fixing settlement negotiations after years of unsuccessful negotiation talks. In September, both plaintiffs and the carrier reached an agreement which lead to the current air cargo price-fixing class action settlement.

The air cargo price-fixing multidistrict litigation, which includes the claims brought against Nippon, began in 2006 when over 90 price-fixing class action lawsuit were filed by consumers against two dozen airlines. The air cargo lawsuits were filed in the wake of the air freight industry investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission.

According to the comments by the Department of Justice, Nippon and other airlines allegedly conspired to artificially fix the price of various airline cargo routes by scheduling secret meetings, conversations, and using other forms of communication. More meetings were allegedly held internationally in order to impose the artificially increased rate and perpetuate the air cargo price-fixing scheme.

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

The Air Cargo Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 1:06-md-01775, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

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