Lufthansa’s ticket-sale agreement with the Turkish Airlines, or THY, is being investigated by the European Commission to determine if it violates competition rules.
The European Commission’s antitrust unit on Friday also opened a separate investigation into the ticket-sale agreement between Portugal’s TAP SGPS and Brussels Airlines. They are examining the deals the airlines had to sell seats on the routes between their respective home countries.
The airlines “should, in principle, be competing with each other,” the EU said Friday in a statement. The agreements “may distort competition, leading to higher prices and less service quality for customers on routes between Germany and Turkey and between Belgium and Portugal.”
Lufthansa is Europe’s second-largest airline. Brussels Airlines is privately-owned, and TAP SGPS, or TAP Portugal, is state-owned.
TAP said in statement that it would cooperate with the probe. “TAP has not been informed that any inquiry is ongoing,” said Lucia Cavaleiro, a spokeswoman for TAP in Lisbon. “Our code-share with Brussels Airlines follows the usual model.”
Lufthansa aided the European Commission and escaped being sanctioned in November when the antitrust body fined 11 carriers 799.4 million euros ($1.08 billion) for coordinating fuel and security fees. Under EU rules, companies can be fined 10 percent of annual sales for antitrust violations. The commission typically opts for a penalty of from 2 percent to 3 percent of sales in cartel cases.
Source: Daily News
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