Antitrust Guidance for the
Air Transport Association e-Business Program
Antitrust laws determine the way in which companies can act together in business activities, such as meetings and programs of the Air Transport Association. ATA and its members are committed to complying fully with those laws.
The basic principle of the antitrust laws is that groups of companies cannot join together to use their combined economic power to limit or otherwise harm competition. This means that what can be done individually by a firm could be unlawful if done collectively by a group of firms. It is also important to understand that an action that may seem to make “good business sense” when undertaken by an individual company can injure competition when done collectively by a group of companies and therefore may be prohibited under the antitrust laws.
Violation of the antitrust laws can result in civil or criminal penalties, or both. These penalties can be severe and can be imposed on companies and individuals. Neither ATA nor the activities that we conduct are immune from the antitrust laws.
To avoid conduct that those laws prohibit, at ATA meetings we do not discuss or reach agreements about such subjects as:
- Passenger fares, cargo rates, service fees, credit terms, warranty terms, refund policies, travel agents' commission rates, frequent flyer program policies, or methods of recouping taxes, fees or charges (such as ticket or waybill surcharges)
- Terms under which a service or product will be provided to customers (this prohibition includes limitations on the geographic availability of a service or product)
- Limiting or refusing to do business with a customer, group of customers or category of customers, or a supplier, group of suppliers or category of suppliers
- Requiring suppliers to use certain specifications (e.g., requiring suppliers to use an ATA specification or the specification of another organization)
- Confidential information about an individual company's finances, such as costs or margins, or its future pricing, marketing or service plans
In addition, there should be no disparagement of an individual, a company or its products or services in discussions at an ATA meeting.
Finally, In accordance with the ATA e-Business Program Membership Agreement, you should not divulge the intellectual property or other proprietary information of your company at an e-Business Program meeting or at any other time in the development of a specification, unless you are contributing it for use in the specification and you have received the permission of your company to do so.
If you are uncomfortable about discussing a matter because you believe that it is competitively sensitive, you should immediately say so and seek the advice of legal counsel before proceeding with a discussion of that matter.
If you have any questions, please contact an ATA lawyer or a lawyer at your company.
