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Flight Centre confident of beating price-fixing charge
Australia’s travel industry will be keenly awaiting the outcome of the decision by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to take Flight Centre to court over alleged price fixing.
Flight Centre has denied the ACCC’s allegations that it had tried to induce three international airlines into a price-fixing arrangement.
The competition watchdog alleges that on six occasions between 2005 and 2009, Flight Centre attempted to get Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Emirates to agree to stop directly offering and booking their own international airfares, including over the Internet, at prices lower than Flight Centre offered.
The watchdog said that Flight Centre’s prices included the cost of the airfare, which was then paid to the carrier, as well as its own commissions.
“It is alleged that the purpose and likely effect of the arrangements sought by Flight Centre was to maintain the level of Flight Centre’s commissions,” the ACCC said in a statement,
Flight Centre’s managing director Graham Turner said the case would be strongly defended.
“We think this is a red herring,” Turner told ABC Radio. He added: “We will be defending it. Our lawyers are very confident they don’t have a case.”
Flight Centre, which has more than 2,000 shops and businesses in 11 countries, said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange last Friday that it had built its reputation on making travel more affordable and was “not in the business of making airfares more expensive”.
Turner said in the statement that as an agent, FLT (Flight Centre Limited) asks for adequate commissions from airlines and other suppliers “and also reasonable access to all fares that they release to the market”.
The regulator’s lawsuit is aimed only at Flight Centre; the airlines have not been accused of price fixing.
The case is due for a preliminary hearing in Brisbane next month.
Ian Jarrett
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