Worldspan suffered two setbacks in its
litigation with Orbitz, and filed a new lawsuit against the online
agency earlier this month.
U.S. District Court
Judge John Grady last month dismissed the suit, which was filed in
the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and
alleged that Orbitz accessed Worldspan data, including seat-map
information for direct-connect bookings, without
authorization.
Grady agreed with
Orbitzs contention that the Worldspan-Orbitz agreements permitted
Orbitz to access Worldspan data. Worldspan also failed to prove,
the judge wrote, that Orbitzs access to Worldspans data did any
damage.
That setback
apparently prompted Worldspan to file a new lawsuit against Orbitz
in state court, the Circuit Court of Cook County, in Chicago.
In this latest
suit, Worldspan seeks damages from Orbitz of more than $50 million,
alleging that Orbitz improperly accessed Worldspan seat-map data
for direct-connect bookings and improperly used the services of two
GDSs, Galileo and ITA Software.
Worldspan also
seeks injunctions barring Orbitz from using data from ITA and
Galileo because Worldspan believes its agreements with Orbitz make
Worldspan the exclusive GDS provider for Orbitz.com.
Unlike the federal
suit, which alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,
Worldspans state court lawsuit merely alleges breach of contract.
Violations of the federal statute can bring criminal
penalties.
Meanwhile, federal
Judge Elaine Bucklo remanded a suit that Orbitz filed against
Worldspan in September back to state court, where it initially was
filed.
Last September,
Orbitz had sued Worldspan in the Circuit Court of Cook County, but
Worldspan had the suit successfully moved to federal court, arguing
that federal issues were raised in the suit, including an Orbitz
allegation that a 2002 contract amendment violated a then-DOT
regulation barring GDSs from requiring minimum-transaction volumes
and prevented their subscribers from using other GDS
systems.
The judge ruled
that a determination of whether Worldspan duped Orbitz into
extending their contract through 2011 does not require a
determination of whether the contract violated DOT regulations at
that time.
Orbitz also claimed
in its suit that Worldspan violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and
Deceptive Business Practices Act by allegedly misleading Orbitz
when the parties amended their contract and extended it to
2011.
Orbitz had alleged
that Worldspan believed at the time of the contract extension that
Orbitz was violating their contract but withheld that information
so the agreement could be extended and Worldspan could later file
legal claims against Orbitz.
To contact
reporter Dennis Schaal, send e-mail to [email protected].