Loophole over Amadeus ownership claimed in new Euro CRS code

A loophole over the definition of “parent carriers” of computerized reservations systems has emerged, the Coalition for Fair Access to Reservations in Europe claims.

C-FARE has called for action over the issue in the European Commission’s proposal for a revised Code of Conduct on CRS “in order to continue to protect consumer choice, small travel businesses and competition among airlines and computerized reservations systems”.

“With this giant loophole, Amadeus, Europe’s biggest CRS, and its three airline owners, which dominate both the air travel and travel distribution markets in many European markets including Germany, France and Spain, have been given a regulatory green light to consolidate their existing dominant positions, restrict access to critical information on their services and engage in other unfair competitive practices to the detriment of consumers and other market participants,” C-FARE claimed.

“For example, if parent carrier obligations no longer applied to Amadeus and its airline owners, airlines could provide more timely fare and seat availability information to Amadeus than to competing systems. Likewise, Amadeus would be free to provide Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Iberia superior fare loading processes and privileged access to technology for the display and sale of their transportation—at the expense of consumer choice and to the point of foreclosing competition altogether.”

The Business Travel Coalition added its weight to the argument, saying: “Here the Commission is taking weak and deceptive measures on behalf of abusive owner airlines and leaving consumers twisting in the breeze.”

Describing the new code as “curious,” the Coalition said the Commission was supposed to ensure that consumers continue to get comprehensive and accurate fare and related information via their online or offline travel agency equipped with a CRS.

“Instead of achieving this goal, however, the Commission has opened a giant loophole in the coverage of these rules, so that the all-important ‘parent carrier’ provisions will not apply to the three airline owners of Amadeus, Europe’s largest CRS.”

C-FARE executive director Brandon Mitchener claimed: “The Commission’s proposal gives Amadeus and its owners a license to engage in abuse.”

“Parliament and transport ministers should send a clear message to the Commission that they oppose this sort of deregulation by stealth.

“They can close this loophole either by establishing a parent carrier ownership threshold at 5% or by acknowledging that the parent carrier obligations apply today to Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Iberia and that any future change in their status must be subject at a minimum to a public consultation and an impact assessment.”

He added: “By failing to clarify the definition of ‘parent carriers’ the European Commission has adopted a decision that may not actually apply to anyone, thereby depriving European consumers of the protection that the Code was created to provide.

“The Commission’s so-called ‘reform’ proposal fails to protect consumers and makes a mockery of the Commission’s publicly stated goal of introducing ‘better regulation’ for Europe’s citizens.”

by Phil Davies

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