Labaton Sucharow LLP Announces New Settlement In Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation

JOC Staff |
NEW YORK --(BUSINESS WIRE)--Labaton Sucharow LLP announced today that Plaintiffs have reached a new settlement in In re Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1775, bringing the total in partial settlements obtained to over $477 million. This settlement with El Al Israel Airlines Ltd., who has agreed to pay $15.8 million to resolve the claims against it, is the sixteenth settlement reached in the litigation to date.

“For businesses around the globe, this settlement is another step toward holding every participant in this cross-border price fixing conspiracy accountable for their wrongdoing.”

Hollis Salzman, Managing Partner of Labaton Sucharow LLP’s Antitrust Practice Group stated, “For businesses around the globe, this settlement is another step toward holding every participant in this cross-border price fixing conspiracy accountable for their wrongdoing.”

The action is pending before the Honorable John Gleeson in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Gleeson has already granted preliminary or final approval to the following settlements:

Air France/KLM/Martinair - $87,000,000
All Nippon Airways - $10,400,000
American Airlines - $5,000,000
British Airways - $89,512,000
Cargolux - $35,100,000
Emirates - $7,833,000
Japan Airlines - $12,000,000
Lan/ABSA - $66,000,000
Lufthansa - $85,000,000
Malaysia - $3,200,000
Qantas - $26,500,000
SAS - $13,930,000
Saudi - $14,000,000
South African - $3,290,000
Thai Airways - $3,500,000

Labaton Sucharow continues to prosecute the case against the remaining Defendants on behalf of a proposed class of direct purchasers of airfreight shipping services. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants engaged in a global conspiracy to unlawfully inflate the prices charged to ship goods by air between January 1, 2000 and September 11, 2006 by, among other practices, colluding on various surcharges and agreeing to eliminate or prevent shipping discounts and commissions.

Labaton Sucharow LLP, with offices in New York, New York and Wilmington, Delaware, is one of the country’s premier law firms representing institutional investors in class action and complex securities litigation, as well as consumers and businesses in class actions seeking to recover damages for anticompetitive practices. The Firm has been a champion of investor and consumer rights for close to 50 years, seeking recovery of current losses and necessary governance reforms to protect investors and consumers. Labaton Sucharow has been recognized for its excellence by the courts and peers. More information about Labaton Sucharow is available at www.labaton.com.