The US court stated that NYK conspired to suppress and eliminate competition by allocating customers and routes, rigging bids and fixing prices for the ocean shipments of ro-ro cargo to and from the US and elsewhere.
The Japanese line participated in the conspiracy from at least February 1997 until at least September 2012.
“This is another step in the effort to restore competition in the ocean shipping industry to the benefit of US consumers,” said Bill Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice's antitrust division. “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 total agreed-upon fines amounted to over $135m for the three companies, including NYK, which have pleaded guilty to price fixing.
NYK is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty 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.
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