Panalpina chief says "cartel" label outdated The head of one of the world's leading freight groups by sales has admitted that the sector has earned its reputation for anticompetitive behaviour, but argued that the image is outdated. Monika Ribar, chief executive of Basel-based Panalpina, acknowledged her company and its peers had a record of cartels and other anticompetitive practices. The comments came on the heels of a €169m European Commission fine against Panalpina and others for operating an international cartel based on meetings at an unpretentious Italian restaurant near London. Panalpina has been told to pay €46.5m, while Kuehne & Nagel, also based in Switzerland, was fined €53.7m for participating in a cartel that used code words like "fresh marrow" and "asparagus" to disguise illegal surcharges. "It is true our industry has gained a poor record, based on problems in the past," Mrs Ribar acknowledged in an interview at the group's headquarters. But companies have learned to deal much more seriously with the situation in recent years. Mrs Ribar, one of very few female executives in the industry, argued change had been triggered by much tougher laws in Europe and the US, and a greater emphasis on ethics among freight companies. She argued that the latest EU fines reflected past problems that had taken years to investigate fully. The EU Commission has taken five years to get somewhere. The whole story happened between 2000 and 2005. Our company has changed dramatically in the meantime. Panalpina, which ranks itself fourth behind DHL, Kuehne & Nagel and Schenker, has had various brushes with regulators. In addition to the latest European crackdown, the group has previously paid almost $82m in a deferred prosecution agreement under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, after probes into its Nigerian activities prompted it to pull out of the country. Panalpina has also lost business from government departments and big companies whose policies forbid them from trading with partners sanctioned for anticompetitive or corrupt practices. "Now as a chief executive in freight you deal more and more with lawyers than with your core business," said Mrs Ribar. She singled out much tougher enforcement of laws, such as the FCPA, for forcing freight companies to become more sensitive to previous practices such as bribing officials to accelerate customs clearance. Among changes instituted by Mrs Ribar has been elevating compliance, with the appointment of a chief compliance officer reporting directly to the CEO, creating much bigger local compliance teams and increasing focus on corporate ethics. "Companies have learned to deal much more sensibly with the situation," Mrs Ribar said. At Panalpina, we haven't left a single stone unturned in re-examining the way we do business.