Opodo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Opodo Ltd.
legal form Limited
founding 2001
Seat London, UKUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom 
management Dana Philip Dunne, CEO
Number of employees 800
sales € 127 million (2013)
Branch Online booking portal
Website opodo.de

Opodo is an online booking portal founded in 2001 by nine European airlines ( Aer Lingus , Air France , Alitalia , Austrian Airlines , British Airways , Finnair , Iberia , KLM and Lufthansa ).

Business model

Opodo arranges air travel and also operates a booking portal. The contract of carriage is concluded between the customer and the airline, but not with Opodo. Therefore, Opodo is not liable for canceled flights and bankruptcies and the customer has to assert his claim against the airline, which is often based abroad.

history

From March 2003 to February 2011, the travel distribution system Amadeus held a stake in Opodo and from June 2005 held a 75.4 percent majority stake. In February 2011, Opodo changed hands for 450 million euros, with AXA Private Equity and Permira Funds being the new main shareholders . Opodo is represented in fourteen European countries. In May 2011, the EU Commission approved the takeover of Opodo by AXA Private Equity and Permira, which together with the French travel company Go Voyages and the Spanish travel company eDreams, together with Opodo, became the largest travel company in Europe called eDreams ODIGEO with a planned annual turnover of around 2 , 5 billion euros should arise.

In the 2005 financial year, Opodo achieved sales of 202 million euros on the German travel market.

Travellink (a Nordic online travel agency) also belongs to the eDreams ODIGEO group .

In 2012, Opodo sold the tour operator Tropo to the ProSiebenSat1 subsidiary SevenVentures.

criticism

In 2014 Opodo.de was criticized because the portal takes around 17 euros as hidden costs and thus violates EU law, which requires full cost transparency.

In 2015, the competition headquarters sued Opodo because it only offered the Visa Entropay credit card as a free payment option for flight tickets on its website . The competition center saw these business practices as a violation of Section 312 a (4) no. 1 BGB . This view is confirmed by both the 27th Civil Chamber of the Hamburg Regional Court and the Berlin Regional Court, since Visa Entropay is not a common and reasonable payment option.

Opodo is also criticized for further questionable regulations, which were not observed in the complaint. In addition to the limited number of free means of payment, there are further restrictions on the purchase of flight tickets below the net price. Such discounted flights can only be booked once in three months per customer and credit card.

A UN report from February 2020 tops Opodo in a list of companies operating in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories . According to the UN, Opodo operates services and utilities in those settlements that are illegal under international law , which serve the existence and maintenance of these illegal settlements.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ opodo.de: Founding date 2001
  2. ↑ a b Opodo imprint. Accessed June 15, 2020 (German).
  3. ↑ a b erstzu-wem.de: Opodo company profile
  4. ↑ Lisa Brack: Lufthansa is playing poker with bankruptcy: What happens to my ticket costs now? Retrieved June 15, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Amadeus adds Opodo to its hotel distribution channels ( Memento of October 17, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ http://www.airliners.de/wirtschaft/kapitalmarkt/amadeus-verkauf-opodo/23349
  7. ↑ Facts and figures about the company Opodo ( Memento of March 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed on March 4, 2013.
  8. ↑ http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/it-medien/eu-genehmigt-online-reiseriesen/4236488.html
  9. ↑ Supplement "Documentation chains and cooperations '05" of the trade journal fvw to issue 14/06 of June 9, 2006, p. 20.
  10. ↑ Opodo sells tour operator Tropo ( Memento from December 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), July 5, 2012
  11. ↑ How online travel agencies cheat flight prices. Those who book flights online often end up paying more than expected. The consumer advice center and the EU consider extra costs on portals such as Opodo, Fluege.de and Expedia to be illegal. In: Zeit Online. Zeit Online GmbH, January 24, 2014, accessed on January 25, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Violation of competition by an online travel agent: “Visa Entropay” credit card as the only free payment option when booking air travel. LG Hamburg 27th Civil Chamber, judgment of 01.10.2015, 327 O 166/15. District Court Hamburg, October 1, 2015, accessed on March 1, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Payment fee not permitted at Opodo.de. LG Berlin, judgment of January 12, 2016, 15 O 557/14. Berlin Regional Court, January 12, 2016, accessed on November 15, 2016 (German).
  14. ↑ Credit card fees for flight bookings via eDreams and Opodo. Chimpando, January 20, 2016, accessed March 1, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Oliver Holmes: UN publishes list of companies with ties to Israeli settlements The Guardian , February 12, 2020; Bel Trew: UN reveals list of 112 companies with ties to Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank The Independent , February 12, 2020; Andrew Carey: UN publishes 'blacklist' of companies doing business in Israeli settlements CNN , February 12, 2020; UN rights office issues report on business activities related to settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , February 12, 2020; Areeb Ullah: UN releases list of companies with ties to illegal Israeli settlements Middle East Eye , February 12, 2020; Noa Landau: UN Releases List of 112 Companies With Ties to Israeli Settlements. In: Haaretz , February 12, 2020; Itamar Eichner: A message to Israel on its settlements Yediot Ahronot , February 13, 2020; The blacklist: All 112 companies UN says are operating in settlements Times of Israel , February 12, 2020.

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