American Settles Consent Decree Dispute With the United States Department of Justice
August 06 2004 - 6:43PM
PR Newswire (US)
American Settles Consent Decree Dispute With the United States
Department of Justice FORT WORTH, Texas, Aug. 6
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Airlines released the following
statement today regarding an announcement by the Department of
Justice concerning a consent decree: American Airlines has settled
a technical dispute with the Department of Justice relating to a
1994 consent decree, without admission of wrongdoing. The 1994
consent decree arose from a lawsuit that the government filed
against American and other carriers in 1992. The carriers settled
that dispute, also without admission of wrongdoing, and that
settlement was approved and adopted in the 1994 decree. The most
recent dispute with the government concerned a change American made
in 2002 to purchase requirements on select fares. The government
alleged that these changes were made in a manner that violated
certain technical provisions of the 1994 consent decree. Although
American disagreed with the government's interpretation of the
consent decree and the facts, it elected to resolve the matter,
rather than engage in lengthy and costly litigation with the
government. "We are pleased to have resolved this dispute with the
government," stated Gary Kennedy, American's Senior Vice President
and General Counsel. "Although we disagreed with the government's
position, we did not view it to be in the company's best interest
to engage in a contentious legal battle with the government. This
settlement will allow the company to remain focused on doing what
is necessary to succeed in the fiercely competitive airline
industry." Editor's note: Please use the above statement for
comment, since we do not intend to speak beyond the provided
statement on this issue at this time. DATASOURCE: American Airlines
CONTACT: John Hotard, or Al Becker, Corporate Communications, both
of American Airlines, +1-817-967-1577, or
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