Amadeus lost a major battle in court last week.
The story so far is that LH imposed a "fee" on all bookings made via a GDS. However in a strange quirk of the story - they have negotiated a deal whereby Travelport and Sabre will not have to pay the fee. That leaves Amadeus with 80%+ market share in Germany picking up the tab for the fee as it has chosen not to implement the fee yet.
Basically a court ruled that it is legal for Lufthansa to ask for the higher fares with separate fees via different channels. While this this verdict may be subject to an appeal, it will take quite some time. For now, Amadeus has to live with the ruling for now. They will have to go on subsidizing the segment fee. That is going to be expensive, so I think we will see a new round of negotiations between Lufthansa and its naughty child.
Local media is also saying that a similar line of argument filed by a complaint at the Cartel office has no chance for success.
Another nail in the GDS model coffin?
You be the judge
Cheers
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