Korean Passengers Sue 2 Airlines Over Price Fixing
A group of Korean passengers having travelled to the United States from 2000 to 2006 by either Asiana Airlines or Korean Airlines filed a class lawsuit against the two air carriers Sunday.
They claimed that the two airline companies overcharged their customers as they conspired to fix passengers fares from 2000 until 2006 in response to oil price hikes and that they should pay them back the amount that all passengers over-paid.
The passengers submitted the legal documents to a U.S. court based in California.
If they win the case, all passengers having travelled from the United States to Korea during the above period will receive reparation.
Experts say the total amount will be hundreds of billion won.
Earlier, the two carriers engaged in a conspiracy to eliminate competition by fixing both cargo rates and passenger fares and agreed to pay approximately 340 billion won fine following the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into price fixing in the air transportation industry.