KEY POINTS:
A $228 million cartel class action lawsuit will be served on seven large international airlines today, including Air New Zealand and Qantas.
The case is being brought by leading law firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman and arises from an alleged global price fixing cartel in the international freight industry which is said to have started in 2000 until now.
The other airlines named include Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, JAL and British Airways.
The case involves various surcharges the airlines imposed over that time.
These include fuel surcharges attributed to higher fuel costs, security charges attributed to extra security measures after the September 11 attacks and war-risk surcharges attributed to higher insurance costs linked to the Iraq war.
Maurice Blackburn Cashman principal Kim Parker said price fixing and market rigging by powerful organisations were the worst kinds of anti-competitive abuse.
Ms Parker said it was important victims of that behaviour had the chance to recoup their losses.
"Air freight surcharges have been unlawfully inflated over the last seven years," she said.
"This case will bring those contraventions into the spotlight and will enable the victims of this cartel to claim back significant losses over the period."
Businesses and individuals who have bought more than A$20,000 of air freight services over the last seven years are affected by the alleged cartel, Ms Parker said.
It is claimed the surcharges were used in a bid to lift prices by secret arrangement between the airlines, and that they were not linked to higher operations costs as represented by the airlines.
Ms Parker said if the case was successful, all Australian businesses would benefit from future reductions in air freight costs.
Prosecutions and class actions have already been launched in the United States and Canada over the same alleged cartel.
In the US action, a settlement was reached with one of the airlines, Lufthansa, for A$85 million compensation for purchasers of air freight services.
The remaining claim against the other airlines in the US is estimated to be worth A$1 billion.
An Air NZ spokesman said the airline had not been served any papers and therefore had no comment to make.
A Qantas spokesman said the company would review the claim once it was served.
"The statement of claim has not yet been served," he said.
"Once served, we will review, take advice and respond appropriately."
- AAP
