Antitrust: Commission confirms assessment of proposed commitments from Oneworld airline alliance
01-Feb-2010 The European Commission can confirm that it is assessing the effectiveness of proposed commitments received from British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia to alleviate the Commission's concerns regarding potential anticompetitive agreements under Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU, formerly Article 81 EC Treaty).
The agreements relate to passenger transport on certain long-haul routes. As part of this assessment process, and before deciding whether the proposed commitments will be suitable to remedy the Commission's concerns and for a public market test, the Commission is sending the proposed commitments first to a number of key market players for comments.
In April 2009 the Commission opened proceedings in relation to its concerns about agreements between British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia. Pursuant to these agreements, the parties intend to jointly manage schedules, capacity and pricing, as well as share revenues on transatlantic routes between North America and Europe.
British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia offered commitments in order to alleviate the Commission's concerns. This proposal requires further investigation before the Commission reaches any conclusion as to the next steps.
The Commission has no further comment at this stage.