The European Commission announced, on Friday 28 April, that it has launched an in-depth investigation into a possible abuse of a dominant position in the Spanish market for online rail ticketing services by Renfe Operadora, the Spanish state-owned railway operating company.
Renfe offers its passenger rail tickets for sale both online and offline. These offers are distributed directly via its platforms and applications and indirectly via third-party ticketing platforms.
The Commission has concerns that Renfe may have acted anti-competitively by refusing to provide all of its content and real-time data to competing third-party ticketing platforms.
Access to Renfe’s information is necessary for the proper functioning of competing ticketing platforms to enable them to offer their customers online search, comparison, booking and payment services. This real-time information and content is also needed by Renfe’s third party platforms to adapt their commercial proposals. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)