Dear flights, the government says enough to the algorithm. But the companies could close several routes
In the decree law that will arrive on Monday in the council of ministers, a measure against the cost of flights is also foreseen. In the draft of the legislative decree, viewed by breaking latest news, there is an article on unfair commercial practices relating to the prices charged on domestic flights to the islands. “The dynamic fixing of tariffs by the airlines, modulated in relation to the time of the booking, is prohibited if the following conditions are jointly met:
a) it is applied on national routes connecting with the islands; b) takes place during a period of peak demand linked to seasonality or in conjunction with a stat
or national emergency;
c) leads to a sale price of the ticket or ancillary services 200 percent higher than the average flight fare”.
PFor these routes, “the use of automated procedures is also considered an unfair commercial practice of determining the rates based on the user’s web profiling activity or on the type of electronic devices used for bookings, when this involves economic damage for the user”.
As the press reports, it’s a kind of war against the algorithm that drives up the prices of airline tickets. “The algorithm, Urso added, “not only adapts according to the request but also leaves free places for a final auction and this is a distortion that will be censored, made impossible by a rule that we will put in the next decree law” .
But, again according to La Stampa, “there is great attention to the matter. Above all because, the same sources explain, if the government’s tightening were to materialize, many companies, following precisely those market logics under accusation today, could decide to withdraw from some routes. Very risky eventuality because leaving certain routes in the hands of a few companies – those considered not low cost – in a regime of less competition, the latter could decide not only not to lower prices, but even to raise them. There is therefore little trust in the government, which is held guilty of a limited ability to understand the price-setting mechanisms”.
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