NYK Line has settled with a court battle with carmaker Daimler launched in August 2018 over allegations that an arm of the Japanese shipping giant colluded with other vehicle carriers to fix prices.
Court documents reveal that UK High Court Judge David Waksman has discontinued Daimler's suit against NYK Group Europe with the two sides settling for undisclosed terms. It leaves just Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) still in dispute with the German carmaker.
Daimler had claimed losses relating to alleged overcharges totalling $214m on vehicle trade worth more than $1.94bn conducted by a cartel that included WWL, CSAV, K Line and MOL.
MOL (Europe Africa) previously agreed to settle its part of the claims from Daimler, and the carmaker confirmed agreements have also been reached with K Line as well as CSAV and now NYK. But WWL confirmed it has not settled with Daimler.
Daimler took the legal action after the lines admitted in February 2018 to violating competition laws relating to services to and from European ports between October 2006 and September 2012.
The European commission fined NYK Line, CSAV, K line, and WWL with its Eukor affiliate over the cartel's existence.
In its case, Daimler alleged the carriers had agreed to restrict competition over wider geographic services, causing it to suffer losses from at least February 1997 to 6 September 2012.
The carriers denied owing damages to Daimler, claiming that higher prices would have been passed on to the manufacturer’s customers, and that the UK court did not have jurisdiction to apply EU law to international maritime conduct before 2006.
