Lata warned against ' discriminative practices'

THE European Commission
has warned that it will
closely monitor “Iata’s intent
to preserve anonymous
shopping”, saying the New
Distribution Capability
could lead to discriminative
practices.
The advisory body on data
protection (WP29) recently
issued a letter to Iata saying:
“References have been made
to potential discriminatory
practices in the process
of price formation related
to the amount of personal
information provided in
advance by the potential
customer that could result
in surcharges linked to
anonymous ticket offer
requests.”
The European Technology
and Travel Services
Association (Ettsa) welcomed
the letter, saying it leaves
space for Iata to work with
stakeholders on the current
privacy concerns. Christoph
Klenner, secretary general
of Ettsa, said: “It is a stern
warning, which we welcome.”
Christoph told TNW there
were several privacy concerns
with the NDC’s data collection,
and since the NDC had not
been formally implemented
yet there were no safeguards
in place. “An important first
step would be to provide data
privacy guidance to airlines
and distributors. We have
reached out to Iata with the
proposal to work together on
producing such guidance.”
However, Yanik Hoyles, Iata’s
head of NDC programme, FDS
Transformation, says the letter
doesn’t constitute a “stern
warning” and that this is “all
in Christoph’s over-heated
imagination”. He says: “While
the WP29 wants to monitor
the implementation of the NDC
standard in the future, we were
encouraged that they identified
nothing to warrant any action
at this time.”
Yanik says Ettsa worked
with Iata to offer the US DOT
specific language to include
in its approval of NDC to
preserve anonymous shopping.
Christoph says, however,
the language in the Iata/
Open Allies agreement reads
‘Approval of Iata Resolution
787 does not constitute
approval of any agreement
among Iata member airlines
to require the disclosure by
any passenger of personal
information of any kind’.
He says: “This means that
in the US if multiple airlines
wish to require disclosure of
personal data from consumers
that is subject to separate
scrutiny by the US government.
The provision does not
resolve any specific data
protection issues, and is an
open question to what extent
it applies to EU and other
jurisdictions.”