Judge Nordin Hassan set aside a decision by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in 2016 that the two airlines did not need to pay the fine as they did not infringe the Competition Act.

“Having considered the issues and arguments put forward by lawyers for the commission, AirAsia, MAS and the tribunal, the court finds the tribunal’s decision tainted with error.

“The tribunal failed to consider the collaboration agreement between the two companies had the effect of distorting competition,” he said.

Nordin also ordered both airlines to pay costs of RM10,000 each.

However, the court did not set a timeframe for the settlement of the RM10 million fines.

MAS and AirAsia’s case with MyCC started in 2014 when the commission found both airline companies had breached the market-sharing prohibition under Section 4(2)(b) of the Competition Act by entering into an agreement on sharing markets in the air transport services sector within Malaysia.

MyCC has the power to fine both airlines 10% of their global revenue for infringing the Act, but imposed a far lesser penalty because the airlines were “cooperative” during the investigation.

The RM10 million fines by MyCC were based on flights by both AirAsia and MAS in the four months between Jan 1 and April 30, 2012 on the Kuala Lumpur-Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur-Kuching, Kuala Lumpur-Sandakan and Kuala Lumpur-Sibu routes.

MyCC’s CEO Iskandar Ismail said the High Court ruling had cleared doubts on the commission’s duties.

“The decision made clear our duty in enforcing the law and to subsequently impose fines on those who infringe the competition laws,” he said.

AirAsia will appeal against the High Court’s decision.

“The RM10 million fine is not a small amount,” said its lawyer Leonard Yeoh.