The railway and online platforms have been arguing about the sale of tickets for years. Following a ruling by the Federal Cartel Office, new contracts have now been signed. However, the legal proceedings are still ongoing.
Passengers should receive just as comprehensive information about delays from online mobility platforms as from Deutsche Bahn itself: To this end, Deutsche Bahn has concluded new contracts with several platforms for the sale of tickets. The contracts provide for the transfer of certain real-time data on ongoing rail operations to the platforms and the payment of a commission for the brokerage of rail tickets, as the Federal Cartel Office announced.
“The mobility platforms now receive delay data, data on train cancellations, current track information or information on major disruptions in real time,” the authority says. The platforms’ business models could not function properly without the data being passed on by the market-dominating Deutsche Bahn.
Selling tickets at Omio or Trainline
The background is the sale of train tickets on platforms such as Omio or Trainline. In order for it to be attractive for customers to buy tickets via such channels, they should receive the same information about delays, train cancellations or timetable changes on the platforms as they would from the train company itself.
Deutsche Bahn always points out that it has long been making this data available as part of the EU Passenger Rights Regulation. However, from the point of view of the Federal Cartel Office, this provision has not gone far enough. The company has also withheld a commission from competitors for arranging the train tickets.
Last year, the authority therefore instructed Deutsche Bahn to “pay a service fee based on minimum antitrust standards” in the future. The contracts now concluded between Deutsche Bahn and the platforms include both the data transfer and the commission.
Legal dispute still ongoing
“DB can confirm that contracts for data provision were recently signed with two mobility platforms,” the company said in response to a request. “Data delivery will then begin on September 1.” Trainline did not initially comment on the process when asked.
Deutsche Bahn had originally filed a lawsuit against the Federal Cartel Office’s decision. The proceedings before the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court are still ongoing.
Source: Stern
