Maritime Car Carriers - “RoRo”

Related Lawyers: Anthony Maton, Laurent Geelhand, Brian A. Ratner, Andrew Bullion, Anna Morfey, Melinda R. Coolidge, Tom Bolster, Amandine Gueret, Charles Laporte-Bisquit

Related Practice Areas: Competition Litigation

Competition authorities around the world, including in the United States, Europe, South Africa, Mexico and Japan, have been investigating a possible global cartel among maritime car carriers to fix prices, rig bids and allocate the market for “roll-on, roll-off” (“RoRo”) transport of vehicles.

In the United States, CSAV, “K” Line, NYK, WWL, and Höegh have pleaded guilty and paid fines for their involvement in the maritime car carriers cartel from as early as 1997 through at least September 2012.

In Europe, CSAV, “K” Line, MOL, NYK and WWL-EUKOR have been fined a total of €395 million for their participation in the cartel. The European Commission’s decision states that these carriers coordinated prices, allocated customers and exchanged commercially sensitive information between October 2006 and September 2012.

Hausfeld’s U.S. and European offices work together with individual large automotive manufacturers that directly purchased RoRo services, advising on litigation and global settlement negotiations. Hausfeld also represents automotive manufacturers in their global damages claims arising from the Automotive Parts cartel.