• Germany: Fine imposed for coordinating Ticket Prices for Flights to Turkey
On 28 September 2010, the Bundeskartellamt imposed a fine of € 1 200 000 on Condor Flugdienst GmbH
for its involvement in an illegal agreement on the prices of flights from Germany to Turkey infringing
national competition law and Article 101 TFEU. No fine was imposed on the airline SunExpress which also
participated in the agreement, as it benefitted from immunity in accordance with the Bundeskartellamt’s
Leniency Programme.
According to the Bundeskartellamt’s investigations the two companies agreed, among others, on the
fact that SunExpress would not offer flights from Germany to Turkey for less than € 99 in the summer of
2009. Moreover, the price of an air ticket was to be set at no more than € 10 below the price offered by
Condor. The agreement covered routes simultaneously operated by the two companies; only the seatonly business was affected.
The agreement ended in the autumn of 2009 following the discovery of the competition law infringement
during an internal audit.
The proceedings were triggered by a leniency application filed by SunExpress, a joint venture of Deutsche
Lufthansa AG and Turkish Airlines. Condor is a fully owned subsidiary of Thomas Cook AG.
The decision followed a settlement with Condor and has become final as the undertaking did not appeal
the decision. In settlement cases, the Bundeskartellamt will generally issue only a shortened fines
decision limited to outline the basic facts and the main legal assessment. Also these decisions are usually
not appealed before the court.
See further: http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/wEnglisch/News/press/2010_09_28.php
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