Qantas Airways and British Airways were fined by an Australian court last Thursday for their involvement in a price-fixing cartel in the global air freight industry, a national competition watchdog said. The Federal Court in Sydney ordered Qantas to pay 20 million Australian dollars ($13 million), a fine the airline had agreed to when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched legal action against it in October. The court also fined British Airways AU$5 million after it admitted an illegal arrangement in the airfreight market, over the same time period with Lufthansa. The two airlines revealed earlier this month they are in preliminary talks about a merger.

Qantas acknowledged "understandings" with other airlines on fuel surcharges relating to air cargo between 2002 and early 2006, the commission said in a statement posted to the Australian stock exchange. The airline said at the time the price fixing did not relate to its passenger service. The statement said Qantas had undertaken an exhaustive probe of the incidents after being made aware of the conduct.

U.S. authorities fined the airline $61 million last year over the same price-fixing scandal and sentenced a Qantas executive to eight months in jail. "Cartels - particularly those that are engaged in by large businesses with broad application over a period of time - have a significant effect on consumers," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said in the statement. "They are an unseen fraud on the community that must be uncovered and punished."

Both Qantas and British Airways have been restrained from engaging in similar conduct for three years and ordered to pay AU$200,000 each toward the ACCC's costs. There was no immediate reaction from Qantas. In October, the airline said the fine would settle the airline's liability in Australia. Similar investigations are being conducted by antitrust regulators in Europe.