OTTAWA: Following a Competition Bureau investigation in the ocean freight industry in Canada, two individuals and one company pleaded guilty to two counts each under the criminal conspiracy provision of the Competition Act for their participation in a price-fixing cartel related to various surcharges, including surcharges for currency exchange rate fluctuations and fuel.

Elvio Lancione, Michael Teixeira and ECU Line Canada Inc. (ECU)’s guilty pleas relate to surcharges for the supply of non vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) export consolidation services from Canada to various foreign destinations between January 1, 2005 and March 6, 2011. They admitted that they agreed or arranged with other participants on the rates, or formulas used to calculate the rates, of various surcharges.

ECU was fined $1 million by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa and is required to set-up a corporate compliance program under the terms of a prohibition order. Elvio Lancione has been sentenced to two concurrent conditional sentences of four months and 30 hours of community service, while Michael Teixeira received two concurrent three-month conditional sentences and 20 hours of community service.