Amadeus wins case to protect data
Amadeus has won a court case to stop the International Air Transport Association (IATA) using its electronic ticketing information for commercial purposes.
The travel IT and GDS company said the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration said the use of the data by IATA's Passenger Intelligence Services (PaxIS) "constitutes a breach of its contractual agreements with Amadeus and also infringes Amadeus' rights under the EU Database Directive."
In a statement, the Madrid-based company said the court had "ordered IATA not to use any ticketing information transmitted by Amadeus for the purpose of developing, marketing and selling PaxIS, or any other similar reports, or for any purpose, except for the orderly operation of the Billing and Settlement Plans.
"This decision fully supports the position that Amadeus has consistently taken, that the conduct of IATA, in using Amadeus' ticketing information in its PaxIS product, infringes Amadeus' rights.
"IATA has confirmed that it will take all the necessary steps to exclude any Amadeus ticketing information from its PaxIS product with immediate effect."
PaxIS is a product developed by IATA's Business Intelligence Service to provide airlines with "more accurate, reliable and affordable data captured through IATA Billing and Settlement Plan."
Opponents of the product have described it as breaching confidentiality for gain.
The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) which has campaigned against PaxIS welcomed the court's decision.
It said IATA's "gamble to flaunt EU law had backfired."
Kevin Mitchell, its chairman, said the ruling now also required IATA to comply with the EU's revised Code of Conduct for CRSs.
"In light of the immediate requirement for IATA to strip out Amadeus data from the PaxIS product to comply with EU law, rendering PaxIS commercially questionable, no reason remains for IATA to continue to refuse to comply with its obligations under the recently revised CRS Code of Conduct to mask the identify of travel agencies and corporate purchasers for data derived from any CRS," he said.
BTC called on the EC Commission on transport and energy "to promptly and forcefully insist on immediate IATA compliance with the CRS Code of Conduct."
Decisions by the ICC Court of Arbitration are confidential but a spokesperson said they were usually binding. Depending on which method of arbitration was used, there might also be a right of appeal.
Sabre said today it had a "very similar" case with IATA due to be heard in a court in Canada "very soon."
Travelport GDS, which owns two major GDSs, Galileo and Worldspan, said it was watching the situation closely.
ABTN approached IATA but was told it had no plans to comment on the ruling.
The Association has said it will always comply with EU law on the CRS Code of Conduct.
www.amadeus.com [1] www.iata.org [2]