Case Opened: March 7th 2008

The Commission received a report from the Travel Agents Association of Barbados (TAAB) entitled “Abuse of a Dominant Position, Anti-competitive Practices in the Travel Trade”. The report alleged that LIAT (1974) Ltd. (LIAT) had engaged in anti-competitive practices with respect to the sale of airline tickets. In particular it was alleged that LIAT was enabling its own retail ticket outlets to offer certain benefits and privileges to customers while not permitting travel agents the opportunity to offer the same.  

In January 2009 the Commission completed its investigation into this matter and found that;

• LIAT could not be defined as a direct competitor of the travel agents, and so could not be said to have acquired market share at the expense of travel agents as alleged.
• LIAT’s conduct was directly aimed at enhancing the production of the product and consumers were allowed a fair share of the benefits in the form of lower ticket prices.

LIAT was therefore found not to have acted in breach of the Fair Competition Act.

Case Closed: February 2009