NYK pleads guilty in criminal cartel case

The Japanese ocean carrier pleaded guilty to criminal cartel conduct in Australia’s federal court in relation to the transportation of vehicles to Australia between July 2009 and September 2012.

   Japanese ocean carrier Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) has pleaded guilty this week to criminal cartel conduct in Australia’s federal court, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
   The charge is in relation to the transportation of vehicles – including cars, trucks and buses – to Australia between July 2009 and September 2012, ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.
   “This is the first criminal charge laid against a corporation under the criminal cartel provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act,” Sims said.
   For corporations, the maximum fine for each criminal cartel offense is whichever is larger: 10 million Australian dollars (U.S. $7.58 million), three times the gains made from the offense, or 10 percent of the corporation’s annual turnover.
   The matter is next scheduled for a directions hearing in the Federal Court Sept. 12 and the ACCC is continuing investigations into other alleged cartel participants.
   Elsewhere, government investigators in the United States, Japan, China and South Africa began investigating price fixing across the automobile industry in 2012, according to the Wall Street Journal.
   Just last Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a one-count felony charge against ocean carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), claiming the Norwegian shipping company conspired with other companies to fix prices, rig bids and allocate customers.
   WWL agreed to plead guilty and pay a $98.9 million criminal fine for its involvement in the price fixing conspiracy on international ocean shipments to and from the Port of Baltimore and other locations in the U.S., DOJ said.
   In the U.S., WWL was the fourth company in this investigation to plead guilty in the investigation, with the other carriers including NYK and “K” Line of Japan, along with Chile’s CSAV.