New Zealand Court Fines Freight Forwarders

NEW ZEALAND – The High Court in Auckland, New Zealand has ordered three international freight forwarding companies to pay penalties totalling NZ$5.2 million plus costs for breaches of the Commerce Act for colluding on ancillary air freight charges connected to security requirements and currency fluctuations.

The penalties on BAX Global (now part of DB Schenker), Schenker AG and Panalpina World Transport follow a New Zealand Commerce Commission investigation which began in 2007 into alleged cartel activities by a number of multi-national companies involved in the supply of international freight forwarding services to the New Zealand market. The investigation was sparked by a confidential application for leniency by one of the company's involved in the conduct.

The companies involved were found guilty of agreeing mutual rates between them for surcharges on the US Air Automated Manifest System (Air AMS), the UK’s New Export System Fee (NES) and China’s 2005 decision to stop pegging the Yuan to the US dollar, causing freight forwarders to arrange a currency adjustment fee (CAF) between them.

BAX has been ordered to pay NZ$1.4 million, Schenker NZ$1.1 million and Panalpina NZ$2.7 million for their roles in the freight forwarding price fixing cartel. These penalties follow on from those already imposed for similar conduct on EGL Inc (now CEVA Logistics) and Geologistics International (now Agility) making for total imposed fines of NZ$8.85 million. A case against Kuehne + Nagel is continuing.

The judgement comes after the same companies admitted to being guilty of cartel activities in the USA last October and agreed to pay fines of over US$50 million between them.

In his judgment, Justice Allan commented that the surcharge agreements were “part of a sustained course of conduct involving covert meetings and communications.” He also noted that the conduct occurred in “a market of fundamental importance to New Zealand.”

Commerce Commission General Manager of Enforcement, Kate Morrison, welcomed the penalties.

“The Court has now ordered a total of $8.85 million in penalties in relation to the freight forwarding surcharge and fee. We are confident the industry has been sent a very strong message that collusion to fix prices is unacceptable. Being so far from our world markets, competitive pricing by the freight forwarding industry is extremely important to the competitiveness of New Zealand industries,” she said.

Don't Be Confused by International Freight Shipping | Sources of ...

Don’t Be Confused by International Freight Shipping

When preparing to transport a parcel, much more care is required if it something that will be shipped by international freight shipping.  An item that is being shipped intrastate or interstate does not receive the scrutiny that a package transported by international freight shipping does.  International freight shipping requires a bit more careful planning to ensure that your package or parcel of international freight shipping will arrive at the proper destination at the proper arrival time.

Using an international freight shipping service will ensure that your parcel is delivered properly and will save the customer from problems such as the parcel not making it through customs when shipped by international freight shipping.  The professionals in international freight shipping will make sure that your parcel is packaged correctly to ensure the safety of your item while being shipped by international freight shipping.  They will ensure that your package goes the correct route to the destination of international freight shipping and that the package will pass through customs from international freight shipping.

International freight shipping has a lot of rules and codes to follow.  These international freight shipping rules can differ greatly depending on many factors.  Each country of origin and destination has their own special laws regarding international freight shipping.  Some of the international freight shipping factors are laws on what can and cannot be shipped by international freight shipping and the value of the item or items being shipped by international freight shipping.

There are import and export international freight shipping laws to take into consideration, as well as documentation for customs for international freight shipping.   It is recommended that you use an international freight shipping professional to ensure that your parcel is in compliance of all the complicated international freight shipping laws.  These international freight shipping professionals are experts who will take care of all the details about international freight shipping so that the customer will have an easy experience sending their packages by international freight shipping.

Before shipping an item via international freight shipping, you will have to fill out some documentation regarding the international freight shipping.  This international freight shipping documentation can vary greatly depending on what you are shipping by international freight shipping and on what country you are shipping your item by international freight shipping.  There are, however, some basic documents for international freight shipping that you most likely will come across.  These are: a commercial invoice for international freight shipping, a certificate of origin for international freight shipping, and a shipper’s export declaration for international freight shipping.

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