Think Tank Says Orbitz Isn't Violating Laws
from the so-they-say dept
The notoriously free market Cato Institute has come out with a report saying they don't believe Orbitz violates any anti-trust laws. Orbitz's competitors aren't particularly happy about the report saying that it mischaracterizes their opposition to the company. Personally, I don't use Orbitz for two reasons. The first three times I tried to use it, it didn't work - and their customer service was terrible responding to my complaints. The second reason is they seem to have taken the lead in annoying pop up ads. While they may work for some people - pop up ads drive me away from using services. That said, however, I'm not sure I see where the "monopoly" problem comes in. Orbitz made some good deals with carriers. It doesn't appear that they violated any antitrust laws. If Expedia and Travelocity wanted exclusive deals, they should have negotiated them when they had the chance.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
