Judge Certifies Delta, AirTran Baggage Fee Class Action Lawsuit

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On Aug. 5, a Class of Delta Air Line Inc. and AirTran Airways Inc. passengers was certified by a Georgia federal judge, who ruled that potential damages determinations for each individual Class Member would not preclude resolving antitrust liability for the Class as a whole.

According the Delta/AirTran class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim the airlines schemed to impose a baggage fee for a pa
ssenger’s first checked bag. The consolidated multidistrict litigation alleges AirTran agreed to impose these baggage fees once Delta did, so that both airline carriers could profit from consumers while protecting their market shares, an alleged violation of the Sherman Act.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten certified the Delta/AirTran passenger Class, which includes individuals who paid the airlines’ baggage fee from 2008 to the present. In granting the plaintiffs’ motion for Class certification, which had been pending for five years, he also rejected Delta and AirTran’s argument that individualized issues predominate the baggage fee class action lawsuit, as some Class Members allegedly benefited from the fees—which according to Delta and AirTran lower base fares—and because the baggage fees varied.

“Here, analysis and evaluation of plaintiffs’ proposed proof that defendants conspired to impose the first-bag fee and that the resulting antitrust violation impacted the class ‘will be done once for the benefit of the class and not repeatedly for each individual member,” Judge Batten wrote in his order certifying the airline baggage fee class action lawsuit. “Defendants’ issues with plaintiffs’ proposed method of calculating damages can be dealt with in the future; for now, it is enough to conclude that the individual issues do not predominate.”

This Delta/AirTran class action lawsuit was filed as a consolidated complaint in February 2010, alleging Delta and Air Tran made a series of earnings calls, industry conferences, and joint negotiations with the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, wherein the defending companies discussed their intentions to increase baggage fee prices.

In October 2013, three years after the plaintiffs moved to certify the Delta/AirTran baggage fee Class, Delta fought back with an opposing motion, claiming that the passenger Class failed to meet the ascertainability requirement for Class certification. The airline went on to argue that it deserved to defend itself from individual Class Member claims before this baggage fee class action lawsuit could move forward in litigation as a certified class action.

However, according to Judge Batten’s recent ruling, he states that the Class of passengers is ascertainable, and he therefore certified the baggage fee Class.

The plaintiffs are represented by Kotchen & Low LLP, Schreeder Wheeler & Flint LLP,McCulley McCluer PLLC, Conley Griggs Partin LLP, Richardson Patrick Westbrook & Brickman LLC, Berger & Montague PC and the Law Offices of David A. Bain LLC.

The Delta/AirTran Baggage Fee Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Delta/AirTran Baggage Fee Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 1:09-md-02089, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

UPDATE 2: On July 12, 2016, plaintiffs in an antitrust lawsuit against Delta Air Lines Inc. and AirTran Airways Inc. have won certification of a plaintiff Class that could include about 28 million Class Members.

UPDATE 4: On Jan. 25, 2017, plaintiffs challenging baggage fees charged by Delta and AirTran asked a federal appeals court touphold certification of a Class consisting of around 28 million former airline passengers.