536 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM or Article 101 of the TFEU, or where it is alleged that there is an abuse of a dominant position in accordance with Article 9 of this Act and, or Article 102 of the TFEU, that court shall stay the proceedings and request the Director General to submit a report on the competition questions raised before it and the court shall take into consideration such report, and any submissions thereon made by the parties and the Director General, before deciding the case. The defendant airlines further pleaded that FATTA had to indicate which provisions of the law were being breached by the airlines. The airlines argued that the Court did not have the competence to intervene in a purely commercial matter between the travel agents and the airlines, which were accredited by IATA, in order to establish the adequate ‘quantum’ of the commission that should be paid on the sale of the airline tickets and other ancillary services related thereto. Moreover, Resolution 824 of the PSAA did not regulate the percentage of commission that should be paid but merely stipulated that it should be an ‘adequate’ compensation. The airlines noted it was a known fact that the commission to travel agents has been decreasing steadily throughout the years, but this was not limited to the Maltese islands but all over the world, and, in some countries, the commission payable to travel agents had also been completely eliminated. Additionally, the airlines submitted to Court that the commission payable to travel agents for the sale of airline tickets was to be decided upon by the airlines, and it was not negotiable nor discussed with the travel agents. It was unilaterally decided upon by the airlines and communicated to the travel agents, and this in the manner so authorised in the PSAA. This meant that a supposedly bilateral agreement was to be amended by one of the parties to it, on a ‘take it or leave it’ situation, which certainly does not do justice to an agreement of a commercial nature. According to the defendant airlines, it is the travel agent who decides to sell the airline tickets of a given airline within the context of the PSAA; therefore the travel agent is free not to enter the PSAA, forgetting that, should a travel agent decide not to sell airline tickets in line with the PSAA, the travel agent would be precluded from selling the flight tickets of all major airline members of IATA. Travel agents cannot pick and choose which airline companies they could provide their services.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==