Japan's big three owners have said sorry after the European Commission fined several car carrier companies for price-fixing.
MOL blew the whistle on the cartel activities and received no fine, but Chile’s CSAV, Japan’s K Line and NYK, and Scandinavian WWL-EUKOR have to pay a total of EUR 395m ($487m).
"MOL offers its sincere apologies to its valued customers and to the society for their concerns this may have caused," it said.
"It is MOL’s principle to do its business in full compliance with the laws and MOL has been compliant with corporate ethics and social norms.
"We are taking the EC’s announcement very seriously. We are making our best efforts to prevent any recurrence of such issues, to further enhance MOL’s compliance structure, and to regain public confidence."
"Sincere regret"
K Line also said it took the matter seriously and has taken steps to further strengthen its compliance and training programmes.
It will record the fine as an extraordinary loss in the fiscal year ending March 2018.
NYK expressed "sincere regret" over the issue and pledged to work to regain customers' trust.
WWL-EUKOR is to pay the bulk of the fine, with EUR 207.3m in total. NYK was fined EUR 141.8m; K Line is liable for EUR 39.1m and CSAV for EUR 7m.
MOL would have paid EUR 203m but received “full immunity” on its fine, the Commission said.
K Line had its fine reduced 50%, while NYK and Eukor received a 20% reduction and CSAV 25%.
This reflected the timing of their cooperation and the extent to which the evidence they provided helped the Commission prove the existence of the cartel.
