Heathrow Airport fined £1.6m for fixing car parking pricing with Arora at Terminal 5

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• Sam Wardill says:

  7 Oct7 October 05:18

  Well done the CMA!

• James says:

  7 Oct7 October 05:38

  This may sound cynical but I don’t think any of the parties emerges with any credit. The Arora Group is engaged in a fight with Heathrow Airport to build the third runway so this “whistleblowing” has to be seen in this context. They entered into an anti-competitive agreement with Heathrow – surely their board or legal team realised that the agreement was blatantly anti-competitive but dthey did not notify the CMA at the time. The least said about HAG the better. As for the CMA, they exist to protect the consumer from anti-competitve practices and yet they had not spotted this flagrant breach of competition law until Arora pointed it out. And the outcome? Arora, who must have benefited handsomely from this arrangement for several years,have got off scot-free; Heathrow Airport have paid a derisory £1.6m fine – derisory because they must have made much more than this thanks to the illegal arrangement; and the consumer continues to be ripped off by airport car parking charges, which ofeten exceed the cost of a short-haul flight. As a goodwill gesture perhaps Arora could halve its parking charges for the next two years. Somehow I don’t think they will!

  • David Ward says:

    7 Oct7 October 07:24

    All true though you can now seek damages from Arora if you parked there. The immunity deal doesn’t protect them against follow on damages claims.

  • Doug M says:

    7 Oct7 October 08:30

    It’s not cynical, it’s accurate. Fines are pointless, director accountability would be far more effective.

    • RussellH says:

      7 Oct7 October 11:35

      Agreed – it should be the directors that suffer; the company can either absorb the cost and shareholders suffer, or it pushes up prices and users suffer.
      It is the same problem with strike action today – back in the 1800s strikes directly affected the bosses and the owners, who were usually the same people. Today, when cabin crew and / or pilots, for example, strike, it has no direct effect on Alec Cruz or Michael O’Leary. If it were written into their contracts that any losses to the airline would be docked from their pay…

• Paul says:

  7 Oct7 October 07:47

  £1.6 million fine. Good I for for one sick to death with rip off Britain. Can’t help thinking that it will just be shrugged off and prices will rise to cover the inconvenience.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    7 Oct7 October 08:47

    Parked at Sofitel before for a meeting a few months ago, shocking prices. However, I was at Legoland yesterday, the prices there are even more shocking. How many people walk or get a bus there? Forces everyone to pay £6 to park, then the prices are airport prices or a bit higher.

    • Alex says:

      7 Oct7 October 11:27

      Thats why getting annual pass using Tesco points was one of the best investments I’ve ever done- the pass comes with free parking.

      • Alex W says:

        7 Oct7 October 21:35

        Is that only if you pay with Tesco points or does paying the cash price for the annual pass also come with free parking?

        Is it just Legoland or all merlin parks?

    • Imbruce says:

      8 Oct8 October 12:12

      Park at North Greenwich carpark to use the Jubilee Line or go to the O2 and it’s £11.50 per day.
      There is a rip off if ever there was one

• David says:

  7 Oct7 October 09:54

  I have used LATAM a few times this year, but I had to fight hard to get the avios credited to my BA Exec Club account. I first claimed on-line and the avios were denied. Then I called customer service and one flight out of three was credited but two refused even though I provided the ticket number and copy of boarding passes. Third time lucky, more than 3 months after the flights, and another round of complaint, I secured the avios. I also used Iberia and the avios/tier points were credited 24 hours after the flights.

• mike says:

  7 Oct7 October 10:34

  Next for CMA… how about doing something about the sales pitch by Heathrow Express (owner: Heathrow Airport) ripping off visitors to Britain before they’ve even left the secure arrivals area?

  Would they give access to TfL (ex-Heathrow Connect) on the same terms as their own staff?

  • Jonathan says:

    7 Oct7 October 10:55

    Also the ticket machines by the lifts & platforms which don’t let you buy a ticket with railcard discount or a heathrow connect ticket

    • Leo says:

      7 Oct7 October 14:09

      I bought 2 singles last week in the secure area from the “barker” and used my network rail card for a third off no problem.

  • James says:

    7 Oct7 October 10:56

    Couldn’t agree more Mike

  • Roger1* says:

    7 Oct7 October 11:37

    Quite right.

    If one of the HEX barkers in T5 Arrivals offers tickets to ‘Central London’, I ask about a ticket to Piccadilly Circus or Oxford Circus. They don’t have a script for this. 🙂

  • Richard C says:

    7 Oct7 October 13:20

    Completely agree Mike. They push a £27 single fare to take tourists to Paddington which is still 20-30 minutes away from ‘central London’. A complete con trick and must give a terrible first impression to tourists arriving here. Reminds me of travelling in a dodgy third world country where you need to be really careful not to be conned by touts at the airport! Sad.

    • Anon says:

      8 Oct8 October 14:30

      Paddington is 20-30 minutes away from Central London?

      • Rob says:

        8 Oct8 October 15:15

        Yup. To the extent that you define Central London as ‘the place you need to be’, which won’t be Paddington.

      • Lynx says:

        8 Oct8 October 15:42

        I think it’s a little unfair to say that Paddington isn’t in Central London. It is in the north-west corner of Central London, I grant you, but none of the termini are going to be ideally located for everyone. It’s as convenient as any other if you’re staying on Park Lane, although I guess that demographic may be less likely to use any form of public transport…

  • Shoestring says:

    7 Oct7 October 16:37

    not in the Competition & Markets Authority’s purlieu

• IslandDweller says:

  7 Oct7 October 16:34

  A discount on latam is a nice idea in theory, but I found their website impossible to use. (Trying to buy domestic flights in colombia for a forthcoming holiday). Refused to process payment, booking failed. Tried three different browsers. Friends hit exactly the same glitch. Awful.
  Ended up going through Amex.

  • SimonW says:

    7 Oct7 October 16:50

    agreed. painful website

• Chris says:

  8 Oct8 October 07:46

  So they get fined but who gets the money? Not the people who got ripped off? Or should I try a claim?

  • Rob says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:17

    You get it, by virtue of being a recipient of services from the UK Government which now has the £1.6m.

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