NYK has done a plea bargain with the US justice department that amounts to an admission of guilt and contravention of antritrust laws.
The US authorities allege that NYK conspired with K Line and CSAV of Chile to fix rates, allocate custuomers and rig bids for ro-ro cargos shipped through the port of Baltimore one of the largest vehicle import and export gateways.
K Line did a plea bargain with the justice department in September that required payment of a $67.7m fine and CSAV a deal in February that involved payment of an $8.9m fine.
As part of the deal all three lines are required to cooperate with an ongoing antitrust investigation.
The justice department said the plea bargains were subject to court approval but brought the total penalties for the rigging of rolling ocean cargoes to more than $135m.
“This is another step in the effort to restore competition in the ocean shipping industry to the benefit of US consumers,” said assistant attorney general Bill Baer. “Including today’s charges, three companies have now agreed to plead guilty to participating in this long-running conspiracy. We are not done. Our investigation is ongoing.”
The justice department noted that price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, carries a maximum of a $100m criminal fine for corporations.
The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
