6 SEP: An estimated 1900 IATA agents will share the millions of dollars Qantas is going to have to pay out in commission on fuel surcharges applied since 2004 in the wake of Friday’s High Court decision refusing it leave to appeal against an earlier Federal Court judgement.
But little of the money will be going to agencies in the big multiple-outlet chains, because the chains opted out of an initial class action lawsuit.
If agents ticketed through their consolidator, they will miss out on payments as major consolidators opted out of the class action in 2008.
Only agents who’ve had IATA accreditation since 2004 can look forward to a payout, and only for tickets issued on their own plates.
Slater & Gordon lawyer Steven Lewis, who has headed the action by agents to reclaim commission on fuel surcharges payable between 2004 and 2006, said this morning: "If I was a franchisee (of one of the multis opting out) I’d be jumping up and down and saying ‘what have you done?’"
The action covers all IATA agents falling into the definition of the class, unless they specifically opted out. A total 2400 opt out notices were sent to class agents in February 2008, with 532 sent back to the court.
Mr Lewis said the next move, after Friday’s decision, is to seek a hearing before Justice Moore of the Federal Court for directions on setting up a "regime" to determine how much commission is owed and how it can be paid.
He said this may take some time, but he’s encouraged by the fact that Justice Moore said in July he would like to see the whole matter resolved by the end of the year.
Mr Lewis notes that the case against Qantas went first as a test case, and he can’t say at this stage whether the Qantas calculations on what is owed will be done before the remainder of the claims against other airlinmes are determined.
However, other carriers who refused to pay commission on fuel surcharges, including British Airways, Air NZ, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, are bound by that judgement, and therefore will have to pay up eventually.
It’s impossible also to estimate likely payouts at this stage because there are so many factors to consider, including changes in surcharge levels over the years, variations in commission levels and some surcharges being applied in US dollars.
However, filed evidence from Qantas calculated commission on fuel surcharges to June 2007 was $26m. But this is before taking intlo account the ‘opt out’ agents. There’s also interest on the commission and the claim is continuing.
Mr Lewis says this is the first claim in the world for commission on fuel surcharges.
