C-FARE attacks Euro CRS code of conduct abolition plan

Proposals to abolish the European CRS code of conduct have come under fire from a lobby group.

The Coalition for Fair Access to Reservations in Europe attacked plans by some in the European Commission to scrap “time-tested rules” that guarantee European consumers fair prices and choice in travel reservations in Europe.

The Commission recently included the CRS Code of Conduct in a preliminary list of allegedly outdated regulations that it proposes to scrap.

The draft proposal, currently undergoing internal review among other parts of the European Union executive organisation, could eliminate existing consumer protection laws as soon as next year, resulting almost immediately in higher prices and reduced choice for European leisure and business travellers, C-FARE claims.

C-FARE members include travel management companies and on-line travel services as well as frequent business travellers and Galileo and Sabre.

The Commission’s transportation directorate is pushing an “untimely repeal” of effective consumer protection rules over the vehement objections of consumer groups, travel agents, business travellers and travel management and distribution companies alike, C-FARE claims. The proposal could be put to a vote before Christmas.

“This initiative makes a mockery of the European Commission’s stated drive to promote ‘better regulation,’” said C-FARE executive director Brandon Mitchener. “If these rules disappear, the Commission will be directly responsible for destroying a critical component of the travel and tourism industry in Europe.”

The Commission has sought to justify this radical and high-risk initiative in the name of improving the competitiveness of the European air travel sector. Nothing could be further from the truth, C-FARE claims.

“Ditching the rules wholesale while major airlines continue to own a major computer reservation system [Amadeus] will cause a return to the kind of lawless environment which prompted these rules in the first place,” claimed Mitchener. “It is a reckless rush to judgement that ignores a sea of red warning signs.”

The vast majority of travel reservations in Europe have been governed by the EU’s CRS code of conduct since 1989. The code guarantees that European travellers are entitled to the best available fares and prices, irrespective of the airline affiliation of the CRS used to make a reservation.

“The European Commission should do the right thing and at the least subject this proposal to a thorough economic impact analysis – as indeed it has pledged to do with all significant regulatory initiatives,” Mitchener said. “It is clear that the only beneficiaries of an immediate and unconditional deregulation which would be a handful of already-dominant European companies including Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Iberia, as well as Amadeus, the CRS that they jointly own and effectively control.

“C-FARE supports responsible reform of the EU’s CRS code of conduct but not an irresponsible and precipitous deregulation that will leave European travellers and the European travel industry stranded.”

Report by Phil Davies