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The antitrust regulators raided the offices of the Travel Agents Association and confiscated documents on suspicion that there have been attempts to find ways of coordinating handling charges collected by the airlines for tickets purchased via the internet.  Yossi Fattal, head of the Travel Agents Association was summoned by the authorities for interrogation.  Supervisor: “We are examining allegations regarding specific agents.”

The antitrust authorities are investigating seemingly suspicious demands from the Travel Agents Association to charge a handling charge from customers who purchase their tickets online. This agreement was to be with those airlines that recently stopped paying basic commission, including Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and British Airways.

The supervisor contends that the matter is still under investigation and in the near future there will be investigations into the suspicious activities of specific travel agents. “There is indeed an investigation against the Association on suspicion of trying to coordinate fees for the benefit of the travel agents; however at this time, we don’t wish to make any further comment,” said a spokesman for the authority in a conversation with Educational Travel.  The report on the investigation first appeared in The Marker magazine.

Recently the antitrust authorities investigated similar cases against other professional bodies, including the contractors association.

The travel agents association has been involved in legal action against Lufthansa, Swiss and British Airways, on the grounds that their action in cancelling the 7 percent basic commission fee showed a lack of good faith and resulted in damage to the agents. Against two of the defendants proceedings were started, claiming that they refused to commit to the agreed amount of handling fees for the duration that the fees were being collected.

The association’s legal advisers, include Attorney Dror Strum, one time director general of the Israel Antitrust Authority.

In its first official response, the Association claimed that it had never acted to prevent competition and never violated legal provisions on restraint of trade. “The evaluations spoken about are erroneous or perhaps show a lack of understanding, something that will be made clearer during the investigation.”