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Esther Stemmer, judge for the Petach Tikva district court, decided to suspend the case filed by the Travel Agents Association against Lufthansa and Swiss on their decision to cancel basic commission. The reason:  Her wish to take time off to deal with the case of the Association against British Airways.

The judge for the Petach Tikva regional court decided to delay any further activity in the case presented by the Travel Agents Association, until a judgment has been made in the claim of the Association, conducted against British Airways. The verdict in this case is expected in the near future after several postponements.

With regards to her decision, Judge Stemmer wrote: “After additional consideration to the requests and responses I am of the opinion that there is room to debate this action following the verdict in case number 3491-04-08” (British Airways).  Stemmer gave the parties the option to respond to her decision within 7 days.

It should be noted that the nature of the claim served by the Travels Agents Association against Lufthansa and Swiss is different from that served against British Airways.  The first two were sued on the grounds of breach of agreement; a compromise was reached by the sides during last year as a result of an examination by the Israel Antitrust Authority.

British Airways were sued because they asked to cancel the basic commission of 7 percent and in the meantime violated the IATA agreement that promises travel agents “a fair and reasonable reward” for the sale of air tickets that they have issued. Two other companies cancelled the basic commission and are yet to be sued despite the statements of the Travel Agents Association; they are Air France/KLM and Alitalia.

It is now estimated that following the court’s unsuccessful attempts to achieve a compromise between the parties, the court will apply the result of the case against British Airways on the case against Lufthansa and Swiss, that they will keep the option of adopting or rejecting the decision and to go to trial. There was no immediate response from any of the parties involved in this matter.