Softvoyage & Competition Bureau reach agreement

Softvoyage and the Competition Bureau of Canada have reached an agreement, addressing concerns of the travel software developer’s dominance in the marketplace.

The new agreement will see Softvoyage modify certain clauses of its contracts in the coming months in order to remove any ambiguity that could have harmed competition. In addition, Softvoyage is committed to putting in place processes to ensure that Softvoyage's business model will continue to respect the laws of competition. Among these processes, a corporate compliance program whose objective is to educate and sensitize its employees to the provisions of the law will be set up within Softvoyage in 2018.

In a statement, Softvoyage said "for the last 30 years, there has been virtually no competition for IT solutions for vacation packages in Canada, which has never stopped us from continuing to develop state of the art technology and give the best service to the thousands of stakeholders using our systems daily. This agreement with the Competition Bureau pushes us to be better and makes us aware of our position and our role."

According to the Bureau, the investigation focused on markets related to the supply of essential software for managing and distributing all-inclusive travel packages in Canada. The Bureau also investigated allegations that restrictive terms in Softvoyage's contracts with tour operators and travel agencies harmed competition and innovation by excluding rivals.

The Bureau's findings were informed by interviews and documents provided voluntarily by Softvoyage and a number of other market participants, including travel agencies, tour operators, industry associations, and Softvoyage's former and potential competitors. The consent agreement is registered with the Competition Tribunal and has the force of a court order.

Since 1987, Softvoyage has been developing and marketing various software solutions for travel industry stakeholders in Canada and the world.