American Airlines AAL has settled a lawsuit accusing web platform Kiwi of being a “rogue online travel agent” that used deceptive practices to sell tickets without American’s consent.
American said in a filing in Fort Worth, Texas, federal court on Tuesday that it had reached a confidential agreement with Kiwi and was dismissing the lawsuit with prejudice, which means that the claims cannot be refiled.
American had sought monetary damages and a court-ordered injunction for alleged unfair competition practices and other law violations.
Terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed in Tuesday’s filing. American and Miami-based Kiwi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Kiwi entity based in the Czech Republic was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit and identified as the owner and operator of the company’s ticketing website.
Kiwi was authorized as an American Airlines travel agent from 2018 to 2020 to sell tickets to American’s passengers, according to the lawsuit. American said it later terminated its agency agreement with Kiwi over “unauthorized and abusive sales activities.”
The lawsuit said Kiwi subsequently and without approval continued to use “American’s valuable and proprietary fare, schedule and inventory content.”
Kiwi countered in a request to dismiss the lawsuit that American’s claims were really against the Czech-based company and that the U.S. court had no power over the foreign firm. Kiwi also claimed that its U.S. business only processed credit card transactions.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in an October ruling let American’s lawsuit move forward, siding with the airline.
“If Kiwi didn’t want to litigate in Texas, it shouldn’t have allegedly mined ticket bids from American’s website and conducted extensive commercial activity here,” Pittman wrote.
The case is American Airlines Inc v. Kiwi.com Inc and Kiwi.com S.R.O., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, No. 4:23-cv-00775-Y.
For American: Dee Kelly of Kelly Hart & Hallman, and Nathan Muyskens of Greenberg Traurig
For Kiwi.com: T. Ray Guy of Frost Brown Todd and Ann Marie Arcadi of Arcadi Jackson
