Codeshare Agreements from the Prospective of Competition Law: A Comparative Study in Law of Iran, US Law and Law of EU

Abstract

Conclusion of codeshare agreement between international and domestic airlines at first was emerged as a way to advertising, but currently it is used as a strategic approach to gain market share and consequently creating a dominant position for airline services market. One of the legal issues of these agreements is doubt raised about their anti-competitive nature. The results of this research, that is a comparative study of the subject in related legal systems in a descriptive-analytic method, indicate that based on the type of the agreement and its specific characteristics, scope of activity and parties’ share in the market, both aspects-competitive and anticompetitive- are probable in these agreements. Furthermore, although competition law has no clear position as to these types of agreements in various legal systems, legally speaking, such agreements should be investigated case by case and a general rule should not be prescribed for all of their examples.

Keywords

• code sharing
• designated code
• dominant position
• competition law