Two airlines - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic - have agreed to pay a total of $200m in compensation in a row about price fixing on transatlantic routes. Individual passengers will be eligible for refunds of around $15 a flight. This report from Mark Gregory:

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But both airlines have faced the wrath of passengers, who mounted a class action lawsuit before the US courts seeking compensation. The payout just agreed mainly relates to American passengers. The law firm that fought the case in the US is thinking of starting a similar action in the British courts seeking compensation for UK passengers. The settlement for American passengers allows them to claim a rebate for a third of the cost of the fuel surcharges - about fifteen dollars a flight.

Allegations of collusion between airlines go much wider than BA and Virgin. They are among fifteen airlines currently being investigated by European Union regulators for fixing freight rates for goods transported by air.

Mark Gregory, BBC News, London

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The payout aims to settle a lawsuit
this large sum of money will be paid to passengers so they stop asking a court to take measures against the airlines

overcharged
made to pay too much

colluding
acting together - secretly and/or illegally - in order to deceive or cheat someone

supplements
here, extra money that you pay after you buy the ticket (because fuel costs have gone up)

exposed the price fixing
showed to the public that the airlines had agreed to act together to keep the prices high

wrath
extreme anger

settlement
agreement (about something they couldn't agree on before)

to claim a rebate
to ask to be paid back

investigated
carefully looked into, examined

freight rates
prices for transporting goods, not people

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