284 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM There was no discrimination in LH’s pricing system: air fares would only depend on the place of departure and not differentiate regarding the place of booking or the nationality of the passenger. 2. FINDINGS OF THE RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES COURT 2.1. GDS Air carriers use different distribution channels to sell their tickets, namely GDSs, direct sales or “direct connect”. Passengers have the choice to either book directly with the carrier or through a travel agency which would normally use a GDS. The GDS allows to retrieve prices and availabilities, as well as to make bookings. For every booking made through a GDS, the carrier has to pay a fee, while travel agencies pay a subscription fee to be able to access the data in the system. Air carriers and GDSs can enter a “full-content agreement” containing a “most-favoured clause”, obliging the carrier to provide a GDS with all flight offers available through other distribution channels. Traditional air carriers like LH use different GDSs (eg. Amadeus, Travelboard, Sabre), while travel agencies usually only have a contract with one GDS. Recently, air carriers tried to reduce their dependency on GDSs by terminating full-content agreements and introducing a DCC. 2.2. Introduction of DCC LH introduced a DCC on 1 September 2015, and since that date, travel agencies have had to pay an additional 16.00 € charge for each flight booking through GDS. There is no such charge for bookings made directly with LH or through a “direct connect” partner, and travel agencies are free to use either of these other distribution channels. The DCC’s purpose was to compensate LH for the cost increase caused by the termination of the full-content agreements. However, it cannot be determined whether the extra 16.00 € charged per flight booking exceed or fell below the actual costs which LH has to pay to the GDS, as the DCC may be slightly above or slightly below the actual costs. 2.3. Market Definition Apart from short distances, flight services can hardly be substituted by other means of transport. The relevant market, therefore, is different from conventional markets. The introduction of a DCC does not only affect travel agencies but all
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