In a series of complaints, US steel and aluminium companies - among others - have alleged that four rail-service providers fixed their prices, overcharging customers by billions of dollars over a five-year period.
"In 2003, the four largest United States-based Class I railroads engaged in an extraordinary series of meetings, phone calls and email communications through which they embarked on a conspiracy - under the guise of a fuel-cost recovery program - to apply and enforce rail fuel surcharges across their customers in order to generate profits," Alcoa claimed in a September 30 filing with the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.Alcoa, alongside Arconic and Reynolds Metal Co, named BNSF Railway Co, CSX Transportation Inc, Norfolk Southern Railway Co and Union Pacific Railroad Co in its filing.Those railroad companies also were named in separate complaints from Nova Chemicals, which filed with the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on September 30, and from AK Steel and North Star Bluescope Steel, which filed alongside energy and other companies with the US District Court for the District of Columbia on...