British Airways cleared of price-fixing charges
Problems with evidence resulted in the case being dropped. Photo: Bloomberg News
Four current and former British Airways executives were acquitted of price-fixing charges at a London court today after the prosecution’s case collapsed because of problems with electronic evidence.
The jury found the men innocent after the Office of Fair Trading asked jurors to deliver a not guilty verdict at the criminal trial.
The agency, the UK’s antitrust regulator, had accused the men of scheming with Virgin Atlantic Airways to fix fuel surcharges on trans-Atlantic flights from July 2004 through April 2006.
Problems with evidence, including thousands of emails that were previously overlooked because they were corrupted, resulted in the case being dropped, prosecutor Richard Latham said.
“There can be only one verdict, not guilty,” Latham told the jury after saying the OFT wouldn’t offer any evidence.
Andrew Crawley, British Airways’ head of sales; Martin George, a former board member; Iain Burns, ex-head of communications; and Alan Burnett, former head of UK and Ireland sales, had denied the charges.
They each face as many as five years in prison if found guilty of operating a cartel with the competing carrier.
The OFT is “guilty of incompetence on a monumental scale,” defense lawyer Ben Emmerson told the jury. “This was a monumental waste of money.”
Virgin won immunity by admitting its role in the scheme.
“We are very pleased that Drew Crawley, our director of sales and marketing, and his three co-defendants have been acquitted of all the charges laid against them,” British Airways’ spokesman Tony Cane said in an emailed statement.
“We have never believed the information provided to the OFT at the outset of this case would be strong enough to bear scrutiny.”
Prosecutors alleged the carriers colluded from July 2004 through April 2006 to match fees charged to passengers to cover rising fuel costs.
Kasia Reardon, a spokeswoman for the OFT, had no immediate comment.
The UK criminalised antitrust violations in 2002.
- Erik Larson
© Bloomberg
