Car rental companies at Perth Airport are likely to have their negotiations over counter space rejected by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The ACCC has signalled its intention to reject a proposal by a group of car rental companies to enter into collective negotiations with Perth Airport.
Perth Airport is using a competitive Request for Proposal process to allocate counter space and parking bays to car rental companies. A group of car rental companies wishes to collectively bargain with the airport about the licence terms and conditions for counter space and parking bays.
The members of the proposed bargaining group, Hertz, Thrifty, Avis, Budget and Europcar, all currently offer car rental services at the airport. These businesses lodged a notification with the ACCC on 3 May so that they could collectively bargain to assist them in their negotiations with the airport.
However, the ACCC received submissions opposing the collective bargaining notification from Redspot, a national car rental company that offers car rental
services at the airport, and Westralia Airports Corporation, the operator of Perth Airport.
Redspot argued that the proposed collective bargaining arrangements would put Redspot at a competitive disadvantage. Westralia Airports argued that collective bargaining would prevent it from allocating airport space by means of an efficient competitive auction.
“The ACCC is concerned that collective bargaining by the group of car rental companies could undermine the Request for Proposal process being run by
Westralia Airports. In this context, the ACCC has moved quickly to prevent collective negotiations from taking place while the ACCC further considers the
notification,” ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said today.
