Canadian Computer Reservation Systems (CRS) Regulations

Regulations Respecting Computer Reservation Systems (CRS) Operated in Canada for the Purpose of Displaying or Selling Air Services Whereas the Government wishes to promote aeronautics, in accordance with the Aeronautics Act, by ensuring that air carriers offering passenger air services that are displayed or sold in Canada are guaranteed fair and neutral presentation of those services in any computer reservation system operated in Canada for the purpose of displaying or selling air services; And Whereas the Government wishes to promote aeronautics by ensuring that travel agents and consumers have access to comprehensive, neutral information about passenger air services that are displayed or sold in Canada; Therefore, His Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Transport, pursuant to subsection 4.3(2)* and section 4.9** of the Aeronautics Act, is pleased hereby to make the annexed Regulations respecting computer reservation systems (CRS) operated in Canada for the purpose of displaying or selling air services. R.S., c. 33 (1st Supp.), s. 1 S.C. 1992, c. 4, s. 7 These Regulations may be cited as the Canadian Computer Reservation Systems (CRS) Regulations. In these Regulations, affiliate means an entity, other than a charterer or a subscriber, that is owned by, controlled by or under common control with a carrier; (société affiliée) air service means a service for the transportation of passengers that is provided by means of an aircraft and that is publicly available; (service aérien) availability means information provided in a display with respect to the seats a carrier holds out as available for sale on a particular flight; (places disponibles) carrier means an air carrier that provides an air service that is sold in Canada; (transporteur) charter air service means an air service that is made available by a carrier to a charterer and that excludes any other services not related to air transport; (service aérien affrété) charterer means a travel organizer or wholesaler that has contracted with a carrier to charter all or part of the seating capacity of an aircraft and that makes that seating capacity publicly available for the transportation of passengers; (affréteur) consumer[Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 1] default display means the display, selected by a subscriber, that appears automatically on the screen unless the subscriber has entered a request, specific to a transaction, for another display to appear; (affichage par défaut) discriminate, discrimination and discriminatory mean, respectively, to discriminate unjustly, unjust discrimination and unjustly discriminatory; (exercer une discrimination, discrimination and discriminatoire) display means the presentation by a system of carrier schedules, fares, rules or availability to a subscriber by means of a video display terminal; (affichage) distribution facilities means facilities provided to subscribers by a system vendor for the provision of information about carrier schedules, fares, rules, availability and related services and for making reservations, issuing tickets or providing any other related services; (infrastructures de distribution) edit means to select and order air service options on the basis of service characteristics; (mettre en forme) elapsed journey time means the time difference between the scheduled departure time from the point of origin and the scheduled arrival time at the point of destination in a given city-pair market; (durée totale du voyage) fare means the price to be paid for an air service and the terms and conditions under which that price applies; (tarif) hosted carrier means a carrier that has an agreement or arrangement with a system vendor for hosting services; (transporteur bénéficiaire) hosting services means services for the management of seat inventory, and ancillary computer services not directly related to displays, that are provided by a system vendor to a carrier in accordance with an agreement or arrangement; (services d’hébergement de données) intermediary means an organization that aggregates carrier information and data and transmits it to a system; (intermédiaire) obligated carrier[Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 1] participating carrier means a carrier that has an agreement or arrangement with a system vendor for the display of its schedules, fares, rules or availability, or for the making of reservations or the issuing of tickets through a system; (transporteur participant) service enhancement means any additional product or service related to air transportation that is offered by a system vendor to participating carriers and made available to subscribers in conjunction with a system, and may include access links providing last seat availability, seat selection and the issuing of boarding passes; (service supplémentaire) subscriber means a travel agent or other entity that holds itself out to the public as a source of information about the air service industry, that makes reservations or issues tickets for air services and that contracts with a system vendor to use a system; (abonné) system means a computer reservation system that is offered by a system vendor to subscribers, that contains information about the schedules, fares, rules or availability of more than one carrier and that provides subscribers with the capability to make reservations or to issue tickets for air services; (système) system owner[Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 1] system vendor means an entity that owns, controls, operates, markets or distributes a system; (serveur de système) tourism product means a pre-arranged combination of an air service and other services not related to air transportation that is offered for sale at an all-inclusive price. (produit de tourisme) These Regulations apply in respect of systems that are operated in Canada for the purpose of displaying or selling air services, irrespective of the legal status or nationality of the system vendor; the source of the information used or the location of the relevant data processing centre; and where the air services are provided. These Regulations do not apply in respect of systems that are used by a carrier and its affiliates or a charterer, in their own offices and at their own sales counters, or to carrier Internet websites. Nothing in these Regulations exempts any person from the operation of the Competition Act or the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. [Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 3] A system vendor shall ensure that all displays in a system respecting information provided by the participating carrier about the schedules, fares, rules or availability of that participating carrier meet the requirements of these Regulations. A system vendor shall ensure that, except in response to requests for information limited to specific carriers, these displays are comprehensive, neutral and non-discriminatory. A system vendor shall construct and order the information in the displays referred to in section 9 in a manner that is applied consistently to all participating carriers and to all city-pair markets within each display. In ordering the information in these displays, a system vendor shall not use any factor that relates, directly or indirectly, to carrier identity. A system vendor shall, in constructing and ordering flights to or from a city with more than one airport, ensure that there will be no discrimination on the basis of airport served when that city is requested as the origin or destination. A system vendor shall ensure that flights involving stops en route, changes of aircraft, carrier or airport or segments carried out by other modes of transportation are clearly identified. Subject to subsection (6), a system vendor shall include charter air services in these displays and shall clearly indicate that they are charter air services. Where more than one charterer is offering charter air service on the same flight in a city-pair market, a system vendor shall ensure that the service appears only once in these displays and that the charterers who are offering this service are clearly indicated. A system vendor shall ensure that tourism products are not included in these displays. A system vendor shall not create or maintain any function that automatically prefers one or more participating carriers over other participating carriers. Where a system vendor chooses to display, for any city-pair market, information about the schedules or fares of non-participating carriers, the information shall be displayed in the same manner for all the non-participating carriers that the system vendor chooses to display. A system vendor shall provide to any person, on request, the current criteria used in constructing and ordering flights for these displays and the weight given to each criterion. A system vendor shall allow a subscriber, from time to time and at no additional cost, to select one of the displays conforming with these Regulations to be the default display, and shall not override that selection. A default display shall be at least as useful to subscribers, in terms of the basic functions or service enhancements offered and the ease with which those functions or service enhancements can be performed or implemented, as any other display offered by the system vendor. For greater certainty, in response to a stated consumer preference, another display may be requested for each transaction without the default display appearing. [Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 6] Where a system vendor provides information limited to fares, the fares shall be displayed in a neutral and non-discriminatory manner and shall include at least the fares provided to the system vendor by the carrier or charterer for each class of service offered by that carrier or charterer for flights included in the displays. A system vendor shall not intentionally or negligently display incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information in its system. Where a system vendor knows that a carrier has provided inaccurate or misleading information about its air services or about the identity of the carriers operating its air services, the system vendor shall inform the carriers and the subscribers. Every participating carrier shall ensure that the information that it has agreed to supply to a system vendor is accurate and non-misleading. Every participating carrier shall ensure that flights involving stops en route, changes of aircraft, carrier or airport or segments carried out by other modes of transportation are clearly identified to the system vendor. Where flights are operated by a carrier other than the carrier identified by the carrier designator code, the carrier whose designator code is being used shall ensure that the carrier operating the flight is, except in the case of short-term ad hoc arrangements, clearly indicated to the system vendor. A charterer who provides information respecting charter air services to a system vendor shall provide the information in accordance with subsections (1) to (3). A participating carrier or a charterer may provide information referred to in subsections (1) to (3) directly or through an intermediary acceptable to the participating carrier and system vendor. A system vendor shall not use any factors that relate, directly or indirectly, to carrier identity in constructing connecting flights for a display. [Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 8] A system vendor shall provide to all subscribers and participating carriers, on request, current information about all connecting points for each market; all criteria used to select connecting points; all criteria used to edit connecting flights; and the weight given to each criterion referred to in paragraphs (b) and (c). [Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 9] A system vendor shall allow any carrier the opportunity to participate in its distribution facilities and service enhancements, subject to any technical constraints that are outside the control of the system vendor. A system vendor shall not require, as a condition for participation in its system, the purchase or sale of any other goods or services. A system vendor shall apply the same standards of care and promptness in loading the information of each participating carrier. Where a system vendor provides special loading capability to any participating carrier, it shall offer the same capability to all other participating carriers as soon as this is technically feasible. A system vendor shall provide on request by any participating carrier all current database update procedures and data formats related to schedule and fare processing. A system vendor is not required to display information provided by a carrier that will not enter into a contract with the system vendor in accordance with these Regulations. [Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 11] The billing for the services of a system shall be in a form and of sufficient detail to allow a participating carrier to verify promptly and exactly which services have been used and the fees for those services. The billing referred to in subsection (1) shall be provided by an electronic medium that is compatible with the electronic medium used by the participating carrier and shall include the following information for each billable segment: the type of CRS booking; the (booking) status code; the booking/cancellation indicator; the PNR record locator number; the passenger name; the country of origin; the IATA/ARC/BSP agency identification code, or other information identifying the agency; the pseudo-city code; the CRS transaction date (booking date); the city-pair or segment; the flight date; the flight number; and the class of service. A system vendor shall ensure that its distribution facilities are separated by software, either physically or logically, in a clear and verifiable manner from any hosting services that are provided to a carrier. A system vendor shall ensure equality of treatment of hosted and non-hosted carriers in respect of procedures, protocols, inputs and outputs. A system vendor shall offer to participating carriers interfaces that are compatible with the relevant, generally accepted industry standards. [Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 13] A system vendor shall display the complete unedited text of these Regulations in the reference information maintained in its system. Where a system vendor adds any improvement to distribution facilities, service enhancements or the equipment used to provide distribution facilities or service enhancements, it shall offer, and provide information about, that improvement to all participating carriers, subject to any technical constraints that are outside the control of the system vendor. A system vendor shall not make available to subscribers the internal reservations system display of a participating carrier unless all participating carriers are offered the capability to make their internal reservations system displays available to subscribers; and a subscriber may see the internal reservations system display only by requesting it for a specific transaction. [Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 16] A subscriber shall provide to a consumer all the information provided by participating carriers and charterers pursuant to section 14 respecting each service in which the consumer expresses an interest orally, at the time the consumer expresses an interest and at the time of reservation or sale; and in writing, at the time of reservation, when requested by the consumer, and at the time the ticket is issued. In any direct oral communication with a consumer concerning a flight that is part of a code-sharing arrangement or long-term wet lease, a subscriber shall inform the consumer, before booking transportation, that the transporting carrier is not the carrier whose designator code will appear on the ticket and shall identify the transporting carrier; and at the time of sale, provide the consumer with written notice of the carrier that will be operating the service or segment of an itinerary. When a transaction between a subscriber and a consumer takes place in an alternative communications medium where there is no oral exchange or written record, the subscriber may maintain evidence of having met the requirements of section 29 by including a notation in the passenger name record (PNR) that the information was communicated to the consumer. No carrier shall require, directly or indirectly, a subscriber or potential subscriber to use a system as a condition for obtaining any benefit, commission, rebate, discount or other incentive for the sale of, or as a condition for obtaining access to, air services provided by it or its affiliates. No system vendor operating in Canada shall use its sales force responsible for marketing the system to promote, directly or indirectly, any carrier to subscribers. No carrier shall use its sales force responsible for marketing its air services in Canada to promote, directly or indirectly, any system or system vendor to subscribers. No member of a sales force responsible for marketing a system of a system vendor and no member of a sales force responsible for marketing the air services of a carrier shall make or participate in joint marketing calls or presentations to subscribers. [Repealed, SOR/2004-91, s. 17] Where the Minister of Transport is of the opinion that the treatment given to Canadian participating carriers by a system vendor operating in a foreign country is not equivalent to the treatment given to foreign participating carriers with regard to any matter contained in these Regulations, the Minister may, by order, require all system vendors operating in Canada to treat carriers of the foreign country in a manner that is equivalent to the treatment given to Canadian participating carriers in that foreign country.