KUALA LUMPUR (April 4): Australian's largest travel agency Flight Centre was fined A$12.5 million after attempting to induce Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Emirates to enter into price fixing arrangements between 2005 and 2009, said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) today.

Flight Centre sought to have each airline agree not to offer airfares on its own website that were less than those offered by Flight Centre.

In a media release today, ACCC said the matter was remitted to the Full Federal Court for determination of penalty, following the ACCC's successful appeal to the High Court of Australia in December 2016.

"The ACCC appealed from the initial A$11 million penalty orders because it considered that this level of penalty was inadequate to achieve a strong deterrence message for Flight Centre and other businesses," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

ACCC added that significant, large penalties act also as a general deterrent to other businesses that may be considering such conduct themselves.

"Flight Centre is Australia's largest travel agency, with A$2.6 billion in annual revenue. We will continue to argue for stronger penalties which we consider better reflect the size of the company, as well as the economic impact and seriousness of the conduct.

"The ACCC wants to ensure that penalties for breaches of competition laws are not seen as an acceptable cost of doing business. To achieve deterrence, we need penalties that are large enough to be noticed by senior management, company boards, and also shareholders," added Sims.

Malaysia Airlines has yet to release a statement regarding the matter.