December 21, 2012 - 08:10 AM ET

The Lufthansa Group no longer requires German corporate clients to provide corporate card data on bookings with competitor carriers, according to Germany's cartel office. The Bundeskartellamt launched an investigation in April 2011 following a complaint from German travel managers' association VDR. Lufthansa initially responded by giving clients the option to forward data about competitors in return for back-end rebates but now will remove the relevant clause from existing contracts with 800 corporate clients and exclude it from new ones for 2013, according to a Lufthansa official. "With the information acquired about the sales and discount conditions of its competitors, Lufthansa could have distorted competition on specific routes by means of short-term and targeted measures," according to a statement from the Bundeskartellamt.