Canada: Sabre law suit against IATA rejected

The plaintiffs Sabre Inc. and Sabre International Inc. claimed damages and other relief from the International Air Transport Association (“IATA”) for breach of confidence, in respect of booking related data provided by Sabre to the Billing and Settlement Plan for Canada/Bermuda (“Canada/Bermuda BSP”) and to the other Billing and Settlement Plans (the “Other BSPs”) in other jurisdictions. The claim relates to PaxIS, an airline industry business intelligence product based in part on ticketing data that IATA collects and processes through its billing and settlement plans (BSP). This data is transmitted to IATA by the global distribution system (GDS) providers, such as Sabre, that assist travel agencies in ticket issuance for their airline principals.In its judgement of Jan. 10, 2011, the Ontario Superior Court held that IATA acted lawfully in developing the PaxIS products based on data from its BSPs and rejected Sabre’s arguments that IATA owed Sabre a duty to use BSP data solely for settlement purposes and not for “commercial” products such as PaxIS. Lastly, the judge determined that Sabre could not claim confidential rights to the airline ticketing data.Soruce; IATA press release of Jan. 14, 2011; find full reasons for decision in pdf here>>.

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