BALTIMORE (Legal Newsline) — The Department of Justice has announced Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics AS (WWL) will pay $98.9 million after allegations of conspiring to fix prices of international ocean shipments for roll-on, roll-off cargo in Baltimore.
“These charges, and for the prior eight executives charged, outline a deceptive scheme to destabilize competition in the marketplace,” said special agent in charge Kevin Perkins of the FBI’s Baltimore Division.
Roll-on, roll-off cargo is non-containerized cargo that can roll right on and right off of the ship, such as cars, trucks and mining equipment. For at least 12 years, between 2000 to 2012, WWL purportedly conspired with other major companies in the industry to fix prices, rig bids and allocate customers.
WWL is the fourth company of the alleged scheme to have monetary penalties levied against it. In total, the Justice Department has delivered $230 million in agreed-upon fines.
“WWL and its co-conspirators cheated their customers for years by fixing the prices of ocean shipping services for cars, trucks, and other cargo essential to our nation’s economy,” said principal deputy assistant attorney general Renata B. Hesse, head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division, working together with our law enforcement colleagues, will continue to hold the ocean shipping companies and executives who perpetrated this scheme accountable for their crimes.”