British Airways plc v Commission

British Airways plc v Commission C-95/04 is a leading EU competition law case, concerning monopoly and abuse of a dominant position.

Facts

British Airways offered travel agents extra commissions if they promoted BA tickets. The Commission said that this was discriminatory, designed to induce loyalty and served to exclude competing airlines.

Judgment

The Court of Justice of the EU held that BA had abused its dominant position because bonuses were individual for each travel agent, based on tickets sold and not those sold over a given level. So selling extra BA tickets meant a large increase in bonus payments. It was worth selling more BA tickets than other airline tickets. The key part of the judgment was as follows: