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practices (Article 101 of the Treaty). The Commission assessed whether
these agreements between airlines may lead to restrictions of competition
on transatlantic routes and focused on consumer harm on six transatlantic
routes, namely London-Dallas, London-Boston, London-Miami, London-
Chicago, London-New York, and Madrid-Miami.
Proposed Commitments
During the investigation and in response to the Commission’s
concerns, the parties offered some slot limiting commitments in relation
to the aforementioned six transatlantic routes. American Airlines, British
Airways and Iberia also undertake to provide access to their frequent flyer
programs on the relevant routes, allowing passengers of new entrants to
accrue and redeem miles on the parties’ frequent flyer programs.
They also agree to submit data concerning their cooperation to the
Commission at regular intervals, which will facilitate an evaluation of
the alliance’s impact on the markets over time. The commitments will
be binding for ten years, and a trustee will be named to monitor their
implementation
3
.
Invitation to Third Parties
The European Commission has invited comments from interested
parties on commitments proposed by the airlines.
Third parties welcomed the commitments as a means of lowering
the barriers to entry. They also made detailed comments concerning the
scope and functioning of the commitments. Some of these comments led
to changes in the final commitments package after the market test.
Decision
The Commission considers that the commitments proposed by the
parties enable competing airlines to start operating or increasing their
service on the affected routes by lowering or eliminating barriers to entry
4
.
3 In accordance with Article 27(4) of Regulation 1/2003, a summary of the proposed
commitments was published in the EU’s Official Journal on 10 March 2010 (OJ C 58).
4 The Commission decision, based on Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 on the implementation
of the EU competition rules, takes into account the results of the market test launched on 10
March 2010.