Stampa

ASSOVIAGGI/ALITALIA


PRESS RELEASE



PRESS RELEASE
Alitalia has been found liable for abuse of a dominant position

At its meeting on 27 June 2001, the Competition Authority ruled that Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A., had abused its dominant position on the transport agency services market, by adopting schemes under which loyalty rebates were awarded to travel agents.  
This abusive conduct was considered to be a serious enough violation of article 82 of the EEC treaty to warrant a fine of 51,992 million lire, equivalent to 1.3% of the 2000 turnover from the sale of air transport services from and to Italy.
In particular, the investigation showed that the practice used by Alitalia of giving incentives to travel agencies to distribute its air tickets, calculated in terms of the sales targets reached by the agencies and not on the basis of the actual volume of sales made, was designed to exclude its rivals from their transport market, hampering access to the travel agency channel. An Alitalia competitor that wishes to remunerate an agency for selling its tickets rather than Alitalia tickets would have had to offer that same agency commissions equivalent to about 30% of the value of its air tickets.
The Authority also ruled that Alitalia's awarding of loyalty bonuses to travel agencies between 1997 and 2000 had produced discriminatory effects against the agencies, which received dissimilar incentives for equivalent services, without any improvement in the efficiency levels of Alitalia itself.  This conduct was considered to be a serious violation of competition law when put in place by companies occupying a dominant position, which gives them a special responsibility, as in the case of Alitalia.
A further negative effect brought to light by the investigation was that because of this abusive conduct, the fare-setting system used by airlines, which was already quite opaque, was made even less transparent, to the detriment of consumers.
Alitalia was ordered to immediately desist from this conduct and, within 90 days of the service of notice that the investigation has been concluded, submit a report to the Authority regarding the measures adopted to remove these unlawful acts.

Rome, 13 July 2001