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This Agreement is made effective as of this 3rd day of March, 2006
by and between Amadeus Global Travel Distribution, S.A. ("Amadeus")
and Sabre Inc. ("Sabre"), hereafter referred to in the singular as
Party or GDS Party or in the plural as Parties or GDS
Parties.
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Preamble
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Whereas , it is the objective of GDS operators (i) to
provide travel agencies with the widest possible inventory of
travel information in general and air travel information in
particular; and (ii) to enable in turn travel providers access to
the greatest number of travel agencies, both for the benefit of the
consumer;
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Whereas , on occasion a GDS may not have access to book
travel on a given airline, whilst such access may be available to
the other GDS;
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Whereas , the GDS Parties especially wish to protect
travel agents that use their systems from potential disruption of
their businesses in the event that an airline suspends
participation in a GDS Party's reservation system;
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Whereas , the GDS Parties wish to provide a framework
for remedying the lack of access to bookings by enabling one
another to complete bookings on airlines which do not participate
in their system, with a view to enhancing and improving their
offerings to travel agencies and consumers;
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NOW THEREFORE,
the Parties agree as
follows:
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Clause 1—Purpose of the Agreement
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To enable each GDS Party to gain access to the other GDS Party's
multiple reservation system, on a reciprocal basis, with the
objective of allowing the GDS Party that requests such access to
enable its agents to book on airlines that do not participate in
the requesting GDS Party's reservation system.
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Clause 2—Definitions
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For the purposes of this Agreement, the following terms shall have
the meaning ascribed below.
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—"Agreement"
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shall mean this Agreement, as amended or supplemented from time to
time, including the attachments to this Agreement and amendments or
supplements thereto;
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—"Retail GDS"
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shall mean the GDS Party requesting from the Content Back-Up GDS
access for its Retail GDS Travel Agents to the inventory of a
Non-Retail GDS Airline;
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—"Content Back-Up GDS"
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shall mean the GDS Party that grants the Retail GDS, solely at the
latter's request, access to the inventory of a Non-Retail GDS
Airline. The Content Back-Up GDS enables the Retail GDS Subscribers
to complete a booking on the Non-Retail GDS Airline, invoices and
collects subsequently the booking fee contractually due from that
airline;
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—"Non-Retail GDS Airline"
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shall mean an airline which supplies its air travel information to
the Content Back-Up GDS and does not participate in the Retail
GDS;
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—"Retail GDS Subscriber(s)"
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shall mean the travel agency subscribers of the Retail
GDS;
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—"Confidential Information"
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shall mean information, not generally known in the relevant trade
or industry, which was received by the Retail GDS from the Content
Back-Up GDS or conversely by the Content Back-Up GDS from the
Retail GDS in order to implement the provisions of this Agreement
and which relates solely and exclusively to technical information
necessary to achieve the aims of this Agreement. Confidential
Information does not include information (i) that is already known
to the other Party at the time of disclosure and not covered by a
separate agreement; and/or (ii) that becomes publicly available
(other than due to a breach by the receiving Party); and/or (iii)
that is rightfully received by the receiving Party from a third
party without an obligation of confidentiality.
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Clause 3—Terms of Access
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Upon sole request by the Retail GDS, the Content Back-Up GDS shall
take all reasonable efforts to provide access to the Retail GDS
within 24 hours (or as soon as possible thereafter) for the purpose
of enabling the Retail GDS Subscribers to complete a booking on a
Non-Retail GDS Airline.
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The Content Back-Up GDS shall activate such access, subject to the
following terms and conditions:
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Content Back-Up GDS grants Retail GDS access to its reservation
system to enable the Retail GDS Subscribers to complete a booking
through the Retail GDS, which access shall be comparable in speed
and convenience to that granted by the Content Back-Up GDS to its
own subscribers. For greater certainty, under this obligation, the
Content Back-Up GDS shall provide no less favorable treatment in
terms of priority in processing the message traffic on behalf of
the users of the Retail GDS than it provides to direct subscribers
of its GDS.
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Access granted to Retail GDS Subscribers is limited to searching
air travel information provided by Non-Retail GDS Airlines and
making a booking on those airlines.
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The Retail GDS may request that access as described above be
terminated with respect to a Non-Retail GDS Airline at any time and
at its sole discretion.
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The Content Back-Up GDS will be entitled to refuse requests for
access as above defined in relation with carriers that do not
participate in the Retail GDS at the time of execution of this
Agreement, including in particular where it can establish that such
access would be contrary to any of its existing commitments.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth in this Clause 3
or elsewhere in this Agreement, the Content Back-Up GDS shall not
be in breach of this Agreement or in any way liable to the Retail
GDS or any Retail Subscribers if the Content Back-Up GDS does not
provide the Retail GDS access to the Content Back-Up GDS'
reservation system in accordance with this Clause 3 because the
provision of such access is prohibited by an injunction (whether
temporary or permanent) or other order of a court of competent
jurisdiction or by applicable law; provided, that the Content
Back-Up GDS has used commercially reasonable efforts to defend
against the imposition of any such injunction or other court
order.
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Clause 4—Excluded Countries
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Due to prior commitments of the Parties, this Agreement shall not
apply to certain countries set out in Attachment 1
(Geographic Scope of Agreement—Excluded Countries), and with
respect to certain other countries it will apply under the terms
and conditions also set forth in that Attachment.
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Clause 5—Pricing
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The Content Back-Up GDS shall pay to the Retail GDS a compensation
for each booking as per the economic conditions reflected in
Attachment 2 (Financial Compensation
Mechanism).
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Clause 6—Right of Suspension in the Event of
Disruption
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The Retail GDS shall take all commercially reasonable precautions
necessary to prevent unauthorized access to or improper use of the
system of the Content Back-Up GDS. In the event that the Content
Back-Up GDS reasonably considers that the Retail GDS is causing or
allowing to be caused an abuse or mis
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