BA set to pay up over price fixing claims
BRITISH Airways is set to end a five-year saga over the regulator’s allegations of price fixing by paying a reduced fine.
BA has held talks with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over the £121.5m fine issued in August 2007. The British flag carrier is now expected to pay part of the charge, but this could be less than half the original sum, and the company is likely to stop short of admitting any wrongdoing.
The controversial fine, which was then a record, was levied by the OFT after a lengthy inquiry into price-fixing. BA was accused of colluding with Virgin Atlantic over the setting of transatlantic passenger fuel surcharges from August 2004 to January 2006 as oil prices rose.
Sir Richard Branson’s airline was granted immunity after blowing the whistle on the practice.
BA initially agreed to pay the fine but later had a change of heart following the collapse of the trial of four senior executives in May 2010.
In November last year, however, the regulator published a “statement of objections”, meaning BA had to pay the fine or challenge it. Willie Walsh, chief executive of parent company International Airlines Group, said at the time that there were no grounds for “that level of fine”.
Yesterday a spokesman for BA said: “We continue to engage with the OFT’s investigation and have no further comment to make.” The OFT declined to say anything more.