The European Commission has readopted a 2010 cartel decision against 11 air cargo carriers, imposing a total fine of €776,465,000 (US$836 million) on them for price-fixing.

The carriers involved are Air Canada, Air France-KLM, British Airways, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, LAN Chile (now LATAM), Martinair, Qantas, SAS and Singapore Airlines.

“Millions of businesses depend on air cargo services, which carry more than 20% of all EU imports and nearly 30% of EU exports,” said Margrethe Vestager, commissioner for competition. “Working together in a cartel rather than competing to offer better services to customers does not fly with the commission. Today’s decision ensures that companies that were part of the air cargo cartel are sanctioned for their behaviour.”

In November 2010, the commission found the carriers had entered into a number of cartel arrangements, both bilateral and multilateral, from December 1999 to February 2006 to fix the level of fuel and security surcharges on flights to, from and within the European Economic Area.

Lufthansa and subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines were also found to be participants but received full immunity under the commission’s 2006 Leniency Notice, which rewards companies for reporting cartels.

The carriers, with the exception of Qantas, appealed against the 2010 decision before the EU’s General Court. The court found that there had been a discrepancy between the reasoning and operative parts of the decision and annulled it in December 2015.

According to the commission, its new decision addresses the discrepancy by bringing the operative part in line with the reasoning part.

The fines for the carriers are as follows.

Any person or company affected by the anti-competitive behaviour in this case may bring the matter before the courts of the member states and seek damages, according to the commission.