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NYK pleads guilty to cartel charge in Australia

NYK pleads guilty to cartel charge in Australia
Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) has pleaded guilty criminal cartel charges over its car carrier operations in Australia.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Monday that NYK had pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal cartel conduct in a Federal court.

The charge relates to the transport of vehicles to Australia between July 2009 and September 2012.

“This is the first criminal charge laid against a corporation under the criminal cartel provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

NYK faces a maximum fine of which ever is greater of AUD10m ($7.59m), three times the benefit obtained, or if this cannot be determined 10% of its annual turnover in Australia.

ACCC said investigations continued into other alleged participants in the cartel.

In 2015 executives from NYK and K Line were jailed in the US for price fixing involving their car carrier operations.