ABTA
has lost its complaint to the Office of Fair Trading that British Airways is
abusing its dominant position by reducing payments to agents.
The
OFT has ruled that BA has not infringed the Competition Act 1998 by making low
booking payments to travel agents.
BA
reduced the payments from £6 to £2.50 for economy tickets and from £11 to £5
for premium tickets in June.
ABTA
argued these lower payments do not allow agents to cover their costs and that
BA is obliged, by virtue of an alleged dominant position, to pay a reasonable
level of remuneration.
The
OFT concluded that, even if BA was in a dominant position, the reduction in
booking payments is not an issue.
ABTA
also argued that if customers decided to charge customers a service fee, this
would encourage them to book their tickets on-line at BA’s website.
The
OFT decided price differences between on-line and agency tickets is not
abusive.
A statement from the OFT read: “Different means
of selling tickets have different costs and the additional service provided by
travel agents, such as searching for available routes and schedules, could
feasibly be reflected in the price they charge.”
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