industry event

CRS Customer Leadership Hearing     

20 September 2007 ▪ 900 to 1200 ▪ Brussels
 
The purpose of this Customer Hearing is to encourage DG TREN to pursue a transparent inter-service consultation regarding potential reform of the CRS Code of Conduct and to provide a platform for stakeholders’ increased concerns with respect to the Commission’s apparent interest in redefining what constitutes a “parent carrier” under the Code.

Without public consultation, DG TREN has essentially gutted the protections of the Code of Conduct in clearly indicating its view  - contrary to statutory language - that “effective control” is the relevant factor when assigning Parent Carrier status, and that it shall be determined on a case-by-case basis. This ignores powerful incentives for abuse that flow from airline ownership of a CRS at any level. According to this view, DG TREN may not believe there are any Parent Carriers in Europe today. This is a serious problem and negates the seemingly positive steps DG-TREN had appeared to take earlier in agreeing to the need to maintain Mandatory Participation, a prohibition against commission tying and other critical consumer protections.

The objective of this event is to forge a consensus view regarding what level of airline CRS ownership produces the incentive and means for abuse. EC regulators in 1989 effectively established that any ownership level was problematic. Because of recent communications out of DG TREN, there is now a need to legislatively clarify, if indeed, any ownership is the criterion that predicts problems, or if problems are more likely to materialize at some threshold percentage of ownership.

This event will comprise the leadership of travel industry and consumer organizations (the “Leadership”) as well as members of the press who will interact with an initial panel of EC and other EU government officials concerned with travel industry competition issues. A second panel will comprise travel industry participants including airlines, CRSs, TMCs and other stakeholders.

Panelists will make 5-minute opening Statements followed by questioning from the Leadership to flesh out positions on issues surrounding potential CRS deregulation. Following the questioning, the Leadership will have an opportunity to introduce motions. Voting on each motion will then take place. Those motions receiving a super-majority vote will be included in the official Leadership Referendum presented to the European Commission and Parliament.

There is no Registration Fee required to attend this event, however, seating is limited to 125. To register, go to Customer Hearing Registration.