Lufthansa Faces New Antitrust Allegations in Europe
Photo Credit: A Lufthansa jet. The carrier is facing a complaint from a European online travel group. Flickr / Transport Pixels
Skift Take
There's no guarantee that the European Commission will act on this complaint but it shows that the online travel industry is still very annoyed with Lufthansa's actions.
The European Technology and Travel Services Association (ETTSA), a lobbying organization for online travel companies and global distribution systems, has asked the European Commission to investigate Germany’s Lufthansa Group over what it called “discriminatory and exclusionary practices.”
The complaint lodged on Wednesday alleges that the airline refuses to supply its cheapest fares through global distribution systems, meaning that most travel agencies cannot access them unless they use the airline's channels.
Although ETTSA is also still very upset about the much-publicized $18 (€16) surcharge on tickets booked through the tech middlemen, it said that this new complaint was different and “limited to certain markets and routes.”
“If regulators do not
