Kuehne + Nagel and Panalpina reach agreement in U.S. antitrust case
Forwarding groups Kuehne + Nagel and Panalpina to pay fines into the millions in the U.S. Kuehne + Nagel International AG and the Panalpina Group have reached a settlement of certain claims arising from an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Under the agreement both companies plea guilty to several cases of price fixing in the form of surcharges for international ocean freight forwarding services that they were accused of. The plea agreement is still subject to court approval. It results in a fine at the amount of USD 9.865 million for Kuehne + Nagel, while Panalpina will have to pay USD 12 million. The plea agreement releases the companies from further prosecution for any conduct related to the sale of international air freight forwarding services, and for conduct related to the imposition of certain enumerated surcharges in connection with the sale of international ocean freight forwarding services. The conduct at issue in the DOJ settlement ended in 2007. Since that time, Kuehne + Nagel and Panalpina have worked to build a state-of-the-art compliance structures as they state. Quelle: LogEastics |