BA gets £121.5m price-fixing fine

BA gets £121.5m price-fixing fine

British Airways has been fined a record £121.5m by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) after it admitted colluding to fix the prices of fuel surcharges. BA held illegal talks with rival Virgin Atlantic over the charges, which were added to passenger fares in response to rising oil prices.

But Virgin has been given immunity after it reported the collusion and is not expected to be fined, the OFT said.

BA will also face a fine from the US Department of Justice (DoJ) later.

The OFT and the DoJ began investigating BA's price-fixing in June 2006. And the airline said in May that it had set aside £350m to cover fines and the costs of legal action.

The fines will end the civil case against BA, but a criminal investigation is still continuing, and the OFT said no conclusions could be drawn about whether charges against individuals would be brought.