The European Court of Justice has upheld nearly EUR770 million euros (USD910 million) in fines imposed on 13 airlines for cargo collusion, ending a long-running legal dispute that spanned more than a decade.

In a series of rulings on February 26, 2026, the court fully rejected appeals against the 2017 fines lodged by 12 carriers. SAS Scandinavian Airlines secured a minor reduction of its penalty, from EUR70.2 million (USD83 million) to EUR62.8 million (USD74 million), after the court identified calculation errors in the original judgement.

The 10 airlines that will have to pay their fines in full after the final appeal was rejected are:

Two other airlines, Lufthansa and its subsidiary Swiss, were also found guilty but received full immunity under the EU's leniency laws for alerting the European Commission about the cartel and providing information. Though they were not fined, the carriers still appealed against the guilty ruling. Their appeal was also rejected.

The 13 airlines were engaged in illegal collusion in terms of their cargo services between 1999 and 2006. They were first fined in 2010. In 2015, the fines were overturned by the EU court on procedural grounds. The European Commission reimposed them in 2017 with revised justification. In 2022, the EU General Court, the lower instance tribunal, upheld the fines but partially adjusted the amounts. The now-rejected appeal was the final attempt to overturn the 2017 and 2022 decisions.