The US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on Tuesday a $4 million penalty against Lufthansa for discriminating against Jewish passengers. The penalty is the largest ever issued by the DOT against an airline for civil rights violations.

The penalty stemmed from complaints filed by Jewish passengers in May 2022 who were flying from New York to Budapest with a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany. A group of 128 passengers, “most of whom wore distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men,” were denied boarding in Frankfurt due to alleged misconduct by several individuals on the flight from New York. DOT investigators claimed that Lufthansa “treated them all as a single group,” despite the fact that the passengers did not know each other and were not traveling together.

DOT claimed the airline violated the passenger’s civil rights by denying the entire group of separate travelers the right to board based on their religious affiliation. Specifically, the blanket denial of boarding to all Jewish males violated 49 U.S.C. § 40127 which prohibits foreign airlines from discriminating against passengers “on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry.”

The US was able to extend its jurisdiction to the incident in Germany by applying 49 U.S.C. § 41310. The section allows the DOT to take action “in the public interest to eliminate an activity” by a foreign airline licensed to do business in the US.

Lufthansa stated that they disagreed with the DOT’s findings that they discriminated on the basis of the perceived religious affiliation of the passengers. The airline also disputed the legal conclusions of the DOT that the agency had jurisdiction over the incident in Germany. However, the airline entered into a consent order to pay a penalty in lieu of litigation.

The action by the DOT comes at a time when authorities are focusing on combating rising antisemitism in the US and internationally.