The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has slapped Sabre Corporation with a £20,000 penalty for failing to provide certain documents on time in its proposed acquisition of Farelogix.
The CMA has been looking into the acquisition since it was announced last year, as have authorities in the US, where the company is facing a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice.
Sabre intended to close the sale in August.
In a notice of the penalty being levied, the CMA said Sabre “produced a large volume of documents (amounting to 444 documents in total) that had previously been either withheld completely from the CMA or provided to the CMA in a more redacted form”. It claimed Sabre had originally labelled the documents as privileged but later admitted they did not contain any legally privileged information.
The CMA said the delay to receiving the documents “had an adverse impact on the conduct of the inquiry”, but did not dispute Sabre’s submission that the failure to comply was not intentional or meant to hinder the inquiry.
A spokesperson for Sabre told Buying Business Travel: "We strongly disagree with the penalty and are working extensively and collaboratively with the CMA to communicate the benefits of this transaction."
Sabre has faced questions regarding its take-over of Farelogix, with the CMA raising concerns that the company “would not face enough competition from other suppliers, leading to higher prices or lower quality services, as well as reduced innovation in the industry generally”.
The firm has repeatedly said the acquisition would not limit competition and that the deal will be completed.