The Justice Department said Virgin and Lufthansa would not face penalties because they had come forward to the authorities. In a statement, British Airways said that from August 2004 to January 2006 it colluded with Virgin Atlantic over the surcharges added to fares in response to rising oil prices.

The history of Virgin Atlantic and British Airways is marked by a famous legal battle known as the "Dirty Tricks" scandal rather than a standard price-fixing collusion. In the early 1990s, British Airways (BA) launched a covert campaign to undermine the emerging rival, Virgin Atlantic. This involved BA staff impersonating Virgin employees to poach customers, hacking into Virgin’s computers to access passenger records, and spreading false rumors to the press. Richard Branson sued BA for libel, and in 1993, BA was forced to pay Branson and his airline over £600,000 in damages plus millions in legal fees. Interestingly, there was a later instance of genuine price-fixing collusion in the mid-2000s regarding fuel surcharges. In that case, Virgin Atlantic actually blew the whistle on the scheme to the authorities; as a result, Virgin received immunity from fines, while British Airways was fined hundreds of millions of dollars by both UK and US regulators for the anti-competitive behavior.