Court Decisions Raise Important Questions for Travel Agents.

Business/Travel Editors & Legal Writers

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2002

Two federal class actions are proceeding in a way that may force travel agents to make important decisions, court records show. In one case in federal district court in Los Angeles, California, "Albany Travel Co. v. Orbitz, LLC," the court denied a motion by Orbitz, a website owned by five airlines that sells airline tickets, to dismiss a complaint alleging that it is part of a scheme by airlines to take over the distribution of tickets. The case seeks billions of dollars in damages as well as a court order dissolving Orbitz. In the other case in federal district court in North Carolina, "Hall v. United Air Lines," the court recently granted a motion to allow plaintiffs to go forward as a class action rather than sue individually.

Each lawsuit concerns the elimination of commissions for airline tickets, but approaches the issue in a different way. Plaintiffs in "Albany Travel" allege that various airlines each decided to eliminate commissions as part of their scheme to dominate the distribution of airline tickets through Orbitz. Plaintiffs in "Hall" allege that airlines expressly agreed amongst themselves to eliminate commissions.

"The two cases are based on fundamentally different theories, and we believe ours is a tight fit with the evidence," said Maxwell Blecher of Blecher & Collins, a Los Angeles law firm with extensive antitrust experience, lead counsel for the plaintiffs in "Albany Travel."

The court in "Albany Travel" will soon decide whether plaintiffs should be allowed to proceed as a class, and the "Albany Travel" plaintiffs expect that they will be allowed to do so as the class in "Hall" was. Travel agents therefore should be prepared to choose to which class they wish to belong: the class in "Albany Travel v. Orbitz" or the class in "Hall v. United Air Lines," Blecher indicated.

"If `Hall' fails at trial or on appeal for lack of compelling evidence of an agreement to eliminate or reduce commissions, the agent selecting that case may well be foreclosed by law from later participating in the `Albany Travel' case with its lower proof requirement. So travel agents should choose carefully when deciding which class to join," said Blecher.