BA executives to be prosecuted over alleged price-fixing

FOUR PAST and present British Airways executives are to be charged with price-fixing in a landmark criminal prosecution that will send tremors through leading multinationals.

The cartel case, only the second ever brought by the UK's Office of Fair Trading, leaves senior figures from one of Britain's biggest corporate names facing the threat of up to five years in jail.

The OFT's action, the latest in a crackdown on price-fixing in industries ranging from supermarkets and tobacco to construction, raises the prospect that other executives could face prosecution.

The OFT's chief executive John Fingleton, is the former head of the Competition Authority in Ireland.

The watchdog has decided to charge the four men over a conspiracy between BA and Virgin Atlantic between 2004 and 2006 to fix the price of passenger fuel surcharges on transatlantic flights. Those to be charged are: Andrew Crawley, BA's head of sales; Martin George, former commercial director and board member; Iain Burns, former head of communications; and Alan Burnett, former head of UK and Ireland sales.

Mr George and Mr Burns left BA in 2006 after it emerged that the OFT was investigating the airline for price-fixing. The case, together with a conspiracy to fix cargo fuel surcharges, eventually cost BA more than £270 million (€242 million) in fines from the OFT and the US department of justice, which had launched its own, separate, investigation.

Virgin escaped penalty in exchange for admitting its part in the passenger conspiracy.

BA and lawyers for Mr Burns, Mr Burnett and Mr George declined to comment. Mr Crawley's lawyer could not be reached.

In his resignation letter, Mr George admitted "inappropriate conversations" might have taken place in his department over fuel surcharges. He said he was not involved in those conversations.

The watchdog sees jailing executives as a highly effective deterrent to the cartels that it says are still rooted in parts of British industry.

The four BA men are among 10 past and present executives who have been excluded from a US deal that offers the airline's staff immunity from prosecution there. - (Financial Times service)