Airlines in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) voted for weekly BSP payments for travel agents in Scandinavia
The decision was made yesterday (December 5) at the Association's Special Passenger Agency Conference in Singapore despite strong opposition from agencies.
Agents in Sweden, Denmark and Norway are now preparing to fight the decision with complaints to the EC and local competition authorities.
Associations representing agents in these countries are also likely to decide next week to take the issue to court.
IATA decided at its Conference that fortnightly payments under the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) for Scandinavian countries would be brought in on July 1, 2008 and weekly payments on January 1, 2010.
Air France-KLM and the local carrier SAS are the airlines behind this move.
A plan to adopt similar weekly payments in Germany was withdrawn on the night before the Conference started.
Lufthansa, the German national carrier which was behind this move, is to hold more talks with Deutscher ReiseVerband, the German agents' association.
Lars Thykier, managing director of Danmarks Rejsebureau Forening (DRF), the Danish agents' association, said of the Scandinavian decision: "Unfortunately they have voted to implement the weekly remittance.
"We had hoped they would come to their senses but apparently they have not."
Mr Thykier said there would now be a complaint to the EC "about the way IATA is abusing its dominant position."
He added: "We have already been in touch with the local competition authorities. But this goes beyond the Danish borders.
"We are holding a meeting of the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish associations next week to decide which of us will take the issue to court."
He said the IATA decision will cost Scandinavian agents about €4.5m in lost interest.
"This is a huge amount we are losing which will be transferred to the airlines," he said.
Rolf Forsdahl, director of Den Norske Reisebransjeforening, the Norwegian Travel Trade Association, who attended the IATA conference, said: "We are not surprised but from the point of view of procedure, it was not properly done by IATA."
He said his members were wondering whether it was worth taking part in IATA's Agency Programme Joint Committee (APJC) where they had voiced their opposition only to be ignored by the airlines.