European seafood distributors may be in line for refunds as an air-freight price-fixing case hovers on the horizon.
European regulators launched a probe into illegal price fixing on air cargo by airlines in early 2006. But a ruling from the European Commission, initially expected in 2008 or 2009, is still awaited. If the EC finds the airlines guilty of antitrust behavior, the door will open to compensation claims.
The airlines are accused of inflating the cost of air freight by around 10 percent across the entire market — from electronics to perishables — between 1 January, 2000, and 14 February, 2007.
“There are many eligible fresh seafood companies who have still not taken any action to participate in obtaining a refund of the overcharge,” Helen Szaday von Gizycki, a former banker and senior consultant at Paris-based firm Equilib, told SeafoodSource.
Endorsed by the European Shippers’ Council, Equilib has been set up to managing and serving as the claimant in a collective action to recover air-freight overcharges.
Szaday von Gizycki “strongly recommended” that firms with a legal entity in Europe that accumulated a minimum of EUR 1 million (USD 1.4 million) in international air freight expenditures from 2000 to 2007 join the group to seek a refund.
“We underwrite all risk and all costs — no cure, no pay — including paying the defendant’s costs if the claim is not successful,” she added.
Szaday von Gizycki further stressed that the refund model offers confidentiality for participants. “It is not a class action, it is an assignment of the right to claim,” she explained.
The group, according to Szaday von Gizycki, is already comprised of “hundreds” of firms in Europe and Australia.
