Add
one more to the list of failed lawsuits against commission-cutting
airlines. A New York case brought in 2002 by Power Travel of
Plainview, N.Y., ended late last month, Travel Weekly has learned.
The agency, which
sued American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United in a class
action, stipulated to the dismissal of the lawsuit, according to
the agencys attorney, Craig Briskin. He declined to comment further
saying details were confidential.
Unlike other suits
triggered by commission cuts, the Power suit was not an antitrust
case but rested on contract law. It claimed the airlines breached
an implied contract of good faith and fair dealing with ARC agents
by eliminating commissions.
In 2003, Judge
Robert Sweet, in U.S. District Court, Southern District in New
York, said the existence of commissions is an implied term of ARCs
agency contract, and so, he said, by paying zero commission rather
than some commission, however small, the defendant carriers are not
in good-faith compliance with the ARC contract.
The litigation was
then held in abeyance for part of 2003 while a class action
launched by North Carolina agent Sarah Hall proceeded.
The Power Travel
lawsuit was live again after the Hall case collapsed in late 2003.
However, since then, two other cases have fallen by the wayside,
leaving two still active.
The similar
lawsuits, filed in federal courts in Beaumont, Texas, and San
Francisco on behalf of about 120 agencies total, are the two that
remain.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin
at [email protected].