IATA wins in PaxIS Dispute

Geneva - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) won a major court victory in a dispute with Travelport over PaxIS. On 1 October, the Amsterdam District Court denied an application by Travelport for an injunction to block IATA’s use of airline data stored in Travelport databases for PaxIS.

“IATA has won an important legal battle to preserve competition for airline data transaction products. The Dutch court decision vindicates the rights of airlines to earn profits from commercializing their data,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO.

PaxIS is an airline business intelligence product based in part on data that it collects through its billing and settlement plans (BSP), some of which is stored in third party databases.

In late August, Travelport sought a preliminary injunction against IATA’s use of BSP data in PaxIS. Travelport argued that the EC database directive gave it the right to control the use of data that it retrieves from its database and transmits to IATA’s BSP settlement systems on behalf of its airline clients.

The 1 October decision of the Amsterdam District Court (Netherlands), denied Travelport’s application, ruling in favor of IATA on almost every significant issue.

“This decision brings clarity and common sense to the evolving and complex interplay between the EC database directive and principles of EC competition law. We are pleased that we can continue to provide the airlines with a cost-effective and competitive data product that supports critical decision-making in their businesses,” said Bisignani.