Press Release: Competition: Commission revises Block Exemption for IATA passenger tariff conferences

The European Commission has adopted a Block Exemption Regulation revising the exemption IATA passenger tariff conferences have enjoyed from the EC Treaty’s ban on restrictive business practices (Article 81). For routes within the EU, tariff conferences will no longer be exempted as of 1 January 2007. The Regulation exempts tariff conferences on routes between the EU and the US or Australia until 30 June 2007 and routes between the EU and other non-EU countries until 31 October 2007. However airlines benefiting from the block exemption on routes between EU and non-EU countries must provide the Commission with data on interlining to allow the Commission to consider whether the exemption for those routes should be extended beyond those dates. The new Regulation will also end the block exemption for IATA slots and scheduling conferences.

European Commission: DG Communication: MEMO/06/359 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/359&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

---