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South African Competition Tribunal finds that SAA abused its dominance in complaint brought by Comair

On 17 February 2010 the South African Competition Tribunal ruled that South African Airways (SAA) had abused its dominant position in the South African airline market during the period 2001 to 2005. The anti-competitive conduct consisted of the offer of exclusionary incentive schemes to domestic travel agents, at the expense of rival carriers. The complaint was brought by SAA's two main competitors in the domestic airline market, Comair and Nationwide.

A CRA team including Giulio Federico, Bob Stillman, Elina Koustoumpardi and Pierre Regibeau advised Comair throughout the investigation of the case. Giulio Federico acted as the expert witness for Comair during the Tribunal hearings on the matter, in March 2008 and in March 2009. In his evidence he showed that the majority of travel agents supported SAA during the relevant period and that they were able to divert significant amounts of traffic away from Comair. He also explained why Comair was not able to match the incentive payments offered by SAA, and how passengers were likely to have been harmed by SAA's conduct.

The Tribunal's decision is available here.

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