590 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM 1. AIRLINE TICKET DISTRIBUTION AND NEW DISTRIBUTION CAPABILITIES In late September 2018, the European Commission announced a full public consultation on the existing European computer reservation system regulation, Regulation (EC) 80/20093. The Commission was pushed into conducting the consultation after one of the many relevant parties, the online travel agents’ association – the EuropeanTechnology andTravel Services Association (ETTSA) – lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman about the speed with which the Commission was reviewing their complaints about unfair behaviour4. The particularly unfair behaviour was the decision by various airlines, led by Lufthansa, to impose a 16.00€ surcharge on all bookings not made through their own website. That course of action, in the eyes of the ETTSA and indeed the large legacy reservation systems known as Global Distribution Systems, or GDSs, showed the airlines to be abusing their dominant position as the only suppliers of airline seats. Leaving aside the hubris contained in their own name, the GDSs have ruled the roost for many years and, arguably, Lufthansa’s decision to charge for bookings made through outside systems, both legacy and online, reflects their frustration at what they saw as an imbalance of market power and its abuse by the reservation systems. Presently, it is clear that Lufthansa is doubling down on its strategy to disrupt GDSs. In October 2018, the Lufthansa Group made Lufthansa and Swiss lounges accessible ‘exclusively’ through a channel of the new IATA-led New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative. In January 2019, it began paying travel agencies 1.00€ each time customers fly on a ticket booked through those NDC channels5. Airlines have complained for many years about the fees they are charged for bookings on their services made via GDS. Once, airlines sold capacity. Then they complicated life for themselves and sold capacity in difference classes. The arrival of the B747, which doubled the number of seats on many flights, 3 European Commission, “Public consultation on the evaluation of the regulation on a code of conduct for computer reservation systems” (17 September 2018) online: https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/2018-crs- -code-conduct_en. 4 Molly Dyson, “ETTSA files complaint against EC over Lufthansa GDS surcharge” Buying Business Travel (2 July 2018) online: https://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/2329095-ettsa-files-complaint-against-european- -commission-over-lufthansa-gds-surcharge. 5 David Jonas, “Lufthansa Greases NDC Rails with Agency Incentive, ‘Exclusive’ Ancillary Services” The Company Dime (14 September 2018) online: https://www.thecompanydime.com/lufthansa-ndc-incentive/.
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