Wallenius Wilhelmsen pleads guilty to ACCC criminal cartel charge

Norway’s Wallenius Wilhelmsen has become the third major shipping line to admit to criminal cartel conduct over car transportation.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen has pleaded guilty to criminal cartel conduct involved in shipping cars from manufacturers including Nissan, Suzuki, Honda, Toyota and Mazda to Australia. Picture Bob Finlayson.

Norwegian-based global shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean has become the third major international shipping company to admit to criminal cartel conduct over jacking up vehicle transportation costs in 2011.

WWO is facing a hefty fine after pleading guilty to criminal cartel conduct in the Federal Court on Thursday, after admitting its role in a conspiracy with Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (K-Line) to fix prices for shipping cars, trucks and buses to Australia in 2011.

NYK copped a $25m fine for the price-fixing cartel in 2017, and K-Line pleaded guilty to its role in the conspiracy last year and was fined $34.5m.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution lodged the criminal cartel charges against WWO in August 2019 following K-Line’s guilty plea, after an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission following regulatory action against the shipping companies in the US and Japan.

The ACCC has said the shipping cartel operated from at least February 1997, when a group of shipping companies agreed to a “respect agreement” – an understanding they would not seek to compete for each other’s business and would maintain their existing market share.

The cartel affected the costs of shipping vehicles to Australia from factories in Asia, the US and Europe on behalf of major car manufacturers including Nissan, Suzuki, Honda, Toyota and Mazda.

It was only broken up in mid-2012 when Japan’s Fair Trade Commission and US Department of Justice launched a series of co-ordinated raids on the offices of the shipping companies involved.

ACCC chair Rod Sims welcomed WWO’s guilty plea on Thursday.

“We are pleased that by entering a guilty plea, WWO has acknowledged its role in this criminal cartel. This plea means the last of the cases in the long-running shipping cartel matters is now closer to being resolved,” he said.

The case has been adjourned for sentencing at a later date.

The action against NYK was the first time the ACCC had successfully led a prosecution under Australia’s criminal cartel laws, and the $34.5m fine against K-line was the largest fine ever imposed under the Competition and Consumer Act.