Luxembourg, 17/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Court of First Instance of the EU has just upheld the June 1999 decision by the European Commission, which condemned British Airways for its system of performance rewards schemes- used to calculate the commission to be paid to travel agents. The Commission decided that this constituted an abuse of a dominant position, according to a Court press release. The Court stated that the effect of this reward system was to restrict the freedom of British travel agencies to provide their services to the airlines of their choice, and thus limit the access of BA's rival airlines to using air routes to and from British airports, according to the press release.
Agencies received financial incentives, including a performance-related bonus worked out on how many more BA tickets were sold from one year compared to the previous one. Virgin Atlantic Airways complained to the Commission in 1993.