American and Alitalia fined over cartel claims Brazil's antitrust regulator is fining American Airlines, Italy's Alitalia, and two Brazilian companies over an alleged air cargo cartel in the country. Cade said late on Wednesday that it would fine the companies, as well as seven individuals, a total of just over R$293m ($125m) over the alleged cartel, which it said operated between 2003 and 2005. American Airlines said it was looking to appeal the decision, and that it was "committed to complying with all antitrust and competition laws." "We are disappointed and strongly disagree with the determination by the Brazilian competition authorities that American was a participant in an alleged price-setting conspiracy involving cargo air carriers," it said in a statement. Alitalia could not be reached for comment. Local media reported that they had been fined R$26m and R$4m respectively. Cade said it began its investigation in 2006 following a leniency agreement with Lufthansa and Swiss, under which the airlines were given immunity in exchange for denouncing the practice and providing evidence for the case. The fines, which were also given to Brazil's Absa and Varig Logística, relate to allegations that the four companies fixed the price and date of fuel surcharges on international freight services. Varig has since ceased operations. Absa could not be reached for comment. "The price cartel generated abusive prices that were passed on to consumers and to the supply chain," Vinicius Marques de Carvalho, the head of Cade, said on Wednesday. We are talking about air cargo. This practice clearly had an impact on the country's logistics costs," he said. Cade said the probe was related to recent investigations into air cargo practices elsewhere in the world. In November 2010 eleven global airlines were hit with fines totalling almost €800m for running an air cargo cartel in Europe for six years. In February this year Air France-KLM signed a R$14m settlement agreement with Cade in Brazil, whereby it confessed involvement in collusion and pledged to cease the practice, Cade said. Its announcement comes as the antitrust body deepens its investigation into an alleged cartel in São Paulo's metro network, involving Siemens and other global engineering companies. This month São Paulo's state government said it planned to sue Siemens to recoup public funds.