The Federal Cartel Office, Germany's competition authority, has launched
an investigation into whether Lufthansa forced corporate clients to release
information about competitors’ pricing in return for negotiated discounts,
according to various news sources.
BTN has reported unhappiness among German corporate clients with the terms
and conditions of the contracts offered by the country's leading airline. Among
the contentious clauses is one requiring clients to authorize release of their
card spending data to Lufthansa, and another compelling customers to authorize
the inclusion of their transaction data on marketing information data tapes.
Clients were given until March 31 to sign the new contracts.
Financial Times Deutschland has reported that Volkswagen and Deutz are among the customers that
refused to sign because of the data requirements. The Federal Cartel Office has
asked corporate clients to come forward with details of the contracts offered
to them by Lufthansa.