OFT halves BA's record-breaking £121m fine for price-fixing
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The record £121.5m fine slapped on British Airways for colluding with Virgin Atlantic to fix prices was more than halved yesterday, when the Office of Fair Trading finally brought a dramatic five-year investigation to a close.
The OFT said it had cut the fine to £58.5m because of recent case law in calculating fines and in light of BA's co-operation with investigators since 2007, when the flag-bearer first admitted colluding with Virgin over fuel surcharges on long-haul flights between August 2004 and January 2006.
Virgin, which tipped off the OFT about the price-fixing, escaped without punishment.
The case led the OFT to launch criminal lawsuits against a number of former BA executives. But the trial collapsed three weeks into a planned six-month legal battle after prosecutors failed to disclose key evidence to the defence, which included 70,000 documents from Virgin's computer database.
A later official review found that "management oversight" and "weakness in investigation processes" caused the collapse of the case, at a cost to the taxpayer of £1m.
Today the OFT claimed the fine had sent a "strong message" on price-fixing to the aviation industry. A BA spokesman said it was "pleased that this matter has been settled".
Virgin said it "regretted" its involvement in the matter but was pleased that a final determination was reached. "[We] reported this matter to the OFT in 2006 and [have] retained full immunity since then," added a spokesman.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments