Qantas Settles Shipper Suit for $26.5 Million

Australian airline Qantas will pay $26.5 million to a group of U.S. importers to settle a lawsuit over its role in an air freight pricing cartel.

Qantas announced the settlement in a statement to the investment community in Australia and said the payment was based on the carrier’s cargo revenue on shipments between Australia and the United States between 2000 and 2006.

By The Numbers: Air Freight Price Index.

Paradiso, a women’s clothing retailer, filed the suit against 19 airlines on behalf of itself and other importers following an announcement of criminal investigations around the world into allegations that airlines conspired together on air cargo surcharges.

Qantas has already pleaded guilty and paid fines in the United States and Australia for those antitrust charges, and the airline’s former cargo chief for the United States was sentenced to jail in the case.

The criminal penalties against airlines around the world have surpassed $2 billion, and Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, American Airlines and others also have paid millions of dollars to settle the U.S. lawsuit.