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Asiana to pay $55 million settlement in fuel price-fixing case

March 25, 2016

(Yonhap) — Asiana Airlines said Friday that it has agreed to pay a $55 million settlement in a fuel surcharge price-fixing case, ending a decade-long anti-trust class action lawsuit against South Korea’s second-largest carrier.

Asiana said in a regulatory filing that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York approved the settlement.

The airline said it reached a deal with U.S. cargo companies to address increased costs and the burden of the defense of a protracted lawsuit, though it denied its legal responsibility over the alleged price-fixing of fuel surcharges.

U.S. cargo companies filed the anti-trust class action suit against Asiana in 2006 over allegations that the South Korean carrier conspired with more than a dozen airlines, including British Airways, to fix the prices of fuel surcharges.

Airlines add fuel surcharges to ticket prices to compensate for higher fuel costs.