Chilean Shipping Company Agrees to Pay $8.9 Million for Price Fixing on Ro-Ro Cargo
A Chilean shipping company has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $8.9 million in fines for its role in an international scheme to fix the prices of ocean shipping services for roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) cargo, said the Justice Department. According to charges filed Feb. 27 in the Maryland U.S. District Court, Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) engaged in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by allocating customers and routes, rigging bids and fixing prices for the sale of international ocean shipping services of inbound and outbound ro-ro cargo, such as cars and trucks, including at the Port of Baltimore. DOJ says CSAV participated in the conspiracy from at least January 2000 to September 2012. DOJ says the plea deal is the first in a wide-ranging investigation on price fixing of ocean shipping services.
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“Today’s charges are the first to be filed in the Antitrust Division’s investigation into bid rigging and price fixing of ocean shipping services,” said Bill Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “Because of the growth in the automobile ocean shipping industry over the past 40 years, the conspiracy substantially affected interstate and foreign commerce. Prosecuting international price-fixing conspiracies remains a top priority for the division." The investigation is being conducted by the DOJ Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section and the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, with assistance from CBP.
According DOJ, CSAV and its co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by agreeing during meetings and communications on prices, allocating customers, agreeing to refrain from bidding against one another and exchanging customer pricing information. The companies then charged fees in accordance with those agreements for international ocean shipping services for ro-ro cargo to and from the U.S. and elsewhere at collusive and non-competitive prices. CSAV is being charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations, said DOJ.