Crowley Liner Services Inc., Price Fixing, Florida 2008

Crowley Liner Services Inc. Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing

Jacksonville, Florida-based Crowley Liner Services Inc. has pleaded guilty to price fixing in the coastal water freight transportation industry. The company was sentenced to pay a $17 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices in the industry.

According to a one-count felony charge filed on April 2008 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Crowley Liner Services engaged in a conspiracy to fix base rates for water transportation of certain freight between the continental United States and Puerto Rico from as early as January 2006 until at least April 2008.

Crowley Liner Services transports a variety of cargo shipments, such as heavy equipment, cargo that would not fit into containers, used cars and liquids capable of being transported only in tanker containers, on scheduled ocean voyages between the United States and Puerto Rico.

As a result of the Antitrust Division’s ongoing investigation, three freight companies have been sentenced to pay criminal fines totaling more than $45 million and five executives have been sentenced to serve prison time totaling more than 11 years.

“By agreeing to fix prices for coastal shipping services to and from Puerto Rico, Crowley Liner Services and its co-conspirators thwarted the competitive process by forcing consumers to pay inflated rates for these services,” said Scott D. Hammond, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division’s Criminal Enforcement Program.

Crowley Liner Services pleaded guilty to price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum fine of $100 million for corporations.

The case arose from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the coastal water freight transportation industry.

Anyone with information concerning this investigation is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section at 202-307-6694, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm or contact DCIS’s Baltimore Resident Agency at 410-347-1620.

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