Kuehne + Nagel, Panalpina Join DB Schenker’s Cartel Lawsuit

Kuehne + Nagel and Panalpina and auto parts supplier Robert Bosch have joined Deutsche Bahn's (DB) logistics subsidiary Schenker in seeking damages from airlines who operated an air cargo cartel, according to a report published earlier this week in German weekly business news magazine, Wirtschaftswoche.
The airlines have already been found guilty by the U.S. Department of Justice, the European Commission and other international authorities for fixing  fuel and security surcharges  between 1999 and 2006.

Kuehne + Nagel and Panalpina and auto parts supplier Robert Bosch have joined Deutsche Bahn's (DB) logistics subsidiary Schenker in seeking damages from airlines who operated an air cargo cartel, according to a report published earlier this week in German weekly business news magazine, Wirtschaftswoche.
The airlines have already been found guilty by the U.S. Department of Justice, the European Commission and other international authorities for fixing  fuel and security surcharges  between 1999 and 2006.
Contacted by Lloyd's Loading list.com, each of the three firms declined to comment on the report.
But a spokesman for DB affirmed that several other companies had joined its claim in Germany.
"The total damage (in Germany) is €2 billion, plus €900 million in interest.  Unfortunately, I can't state the names of these companies for confidentiality reasons," he said.
At the beginning of last month, DB announced that Schenker was seeking total damages from the cartel estimated at $2.5 billion – approximately $370 million in the U.S. and $2.19 billion in Germany, including interest.
The U.S. portion could increase to an estimated $1.1 billion if the court awards treble damages in the case, it added.
Quizzed at the time by Lloyd's Loading list.com on how much each of the airlines in the lawsuits were being sued for, DB declined to go into detail.
However, the group's head of antitrust and competition law, Christopher Rother, did reveal that Lufthansa’s share of the $2.19 billion lawsuit in Germany could represent between 10% and 20% of the total.
The German carrier had acted as ‘whistleblower’ on the cartel in 2006 in return for leniency from competition authorities.