Airlines Fuel Surcharge Price-Fixing Matters

Analysis Group was retained on behalf of British Airways in responding to government investigations and private class actions involving the alleged coordination of fuel surcharges applied to cargo fees and passenger fares. Our work was used to respond to numerous requests from competition authorities in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. We extensively analyzed the airline’s transactional data on issues pertaining to both liability and damages, including the effects of the fuel surcharges on the total prices paid by cargo customers and passengers. In several of these cases, our data-handling capability and capacity allowed us to take all of the airline’s transaction data over several years and create a database for real-time response to government requests for different cuts of the data, including by time period and geography. Analysis Group assisted with fact discovery, calculation of the volume of affected commerce, mediation, and the preparation of expert testimony. We also supported counsel in the development of a settlement model and in analyzing the true cost of different types of consumer payments.