Chased off my Royal Caribbean & Celebrity

[jeffinhburg]

Smeyer,

 

I'm not so sure that there wasn't at least a wink, but am actually surprised that RCI came out with the harsher policy, setting themselves up for the expense of being the best big test case. Anyway, it will be very fact intensive, judging from the government's recent views on vertical fixing in different situations.

 

I was actually exiled from NCL due to the lack of my favorite itineraries in 2004-2005, but am glad that I haven't heard of NCL adopting the policies yet. Maybe it's a financial decision: let someone else shoulder the legal costs for the test cases and then adjust policies.

 

I was most upset by the attitude of Carnival's first Release on the issue, essentially saying "bring it on." The facts are so different from, and more complicated than, anything I've been able to pull up in 10 minutes of research (can't bill, can't do, you know ;-) ), that I thought the attitude was uncalled for. You know well, we have all had "sure win" cases that failed, and prayer cases that succeeded. Arrogance is not a virtue. I also thought their comparison of pricing control to control of branding was over the top, and ripe to be ripped apart.

 

I tried to avoid getting too deeply into the legal stuff here. I really just want to say that I hope that the policy fails on merit first, and that others do what the original poster to this thread did by voting with their feet.

[smeyer418]

I am not sure I understand your point. I don't think they will have a problem with the FTC especially since there are differences between Carny and RCCI. This is not a vertical issue. Its a principal telling its agents it can't split its commission and can only advertise and sell approved pricing. You will note if you read the announcements they have excluded block reselling of rooms(now that would be price fixing per se if they tried to do that). So even if there was an FTC inquiry absent evidence of collusion among different parties, this would pass muster on anti-trust in my opinion. I would suggest you look at the FTC discussion of when the FTC approved the most recent merger that Carnival did(its on a free site)....BTW the collusion can be between the different cruise lines and the TA's... a lot of fact specific issues.

[seahorse]

Gee, I just love Lawyer talk;)

 

Question--Does it make any difference that the lines are not US companies.

[smeyer418]

No, they sell in the US anyone who sells here must obey the rules...They also all have offices in the US.