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OFT sets deadline over BA price fixing fine
The Office of Fair Trading will decide this summer whether or not British Airways must pay a £121.5 million fine for price fixing with Virgin Atlantic.
Reports in the Daily Telegraph said the OFT had announced over the weekend that it would bring the matter to a close in the third quarter of this financial year.
BA has already paid a US fine in full and agreed to pay the OFT fine four years ago.
However, it reassessed its position after the collapse last year of a criminal case brought by the OFT against BA executives Martin George, Andrew Crawley, Alan Burnett and Iain Burns.
According to reports at the time, BA was intending to use evidence disclosed at that criminal trial to challenge the civil case.
Until now both parties have remained tight lipped about the matter but the OFT has now said it will bring the dispute to the close this summer.
The allegations of price fixing relate to colluding with competitors, including Virgin Atlantic, on fuel surcharges on tickets between July 2004 and April 2006, which meant passengers were overcharged.
Virgin Atlantic alerted the authorities to the price fixing so escaped prosecution.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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