The European Commission and Renfe have reached an agreement on the changes that the Spanish railway company must adopt to comply with its obligations to open up to competition, which include measures to facilitate the sale of tickets to competing platforms, which from now on must have real-time access to all its services and content.
“The decision adopted today opens up the sale of online tickets in Spain to competition. From now on, independent ticket sales platforms will have access to all the information necessary to innovate and compete effectively with Renfe’s online distribution channels. “It is crucial for more affordable rail services and the promotion of environmentally friendly means of transport,” said the Vice-President of the European Commission and head of the Competition portfolio, Margrethe Vestager, whose services opened the year today. filed a file with Renfe for alleged abuse of dominant position.
In accordance with European regulations, the European Commission has made “binding by law” the commitments offered by the Spanish public company to remedy the problems detected as a result of refusing to provide all its content and service data in real time to external platforms of sale of tickets through apps or online portals. Specifically, and after months of negotiations, proposals and failed tests on the effects of the remedies offered by Renfe, the company has finally committed to the EU to make available to third-party ticket sales platforms “all the contents current and future data and real-time data displayed on their own online channels”, no later than February 29.
The Spanish historical operator, for its part, may apply to third-party platforms a maximum applicable consultation-reservation coefficient ratio, with consequences in the event of non-compliance, made in a specific period of time. “Renfe could only temporarily suspend the access of a competing platform to its sales system only if it exceeded the maximum applicable query-reservation ratio, something that would negatively affect Renfe’s sales system or immediately threaten to hinder the sale of tickets for that platform. company”, a measure that aims to preserve the “parity” between both actors. There will also be limits on the monthly unavailability rate of the sales system that Renfe can offer between six in the morning and eleven at night.
“The Commission has concluded that the definitive commitments respond to its preliminary reservations regarding competition in relation to the alleged abuse of Renfe’s dominant position in the Spanish market for the distribution of online passenger railway tickets,” explains the community executive in a statement. Hence, he adds, his decision to make them “legally binding for Renfe.” The commitments will remain in force indefinitely and their compliance will be monitored by an administrator who will report regularly to the Commission for ten years. If Renfe failed to comply with these commitments, the community institution could impose a fine of up to 10% of the company’s global turnover, “without having to demonstrate the existence of a violation of EU antitrust rules.” ”.
