Southwest Lawsuit Alleges Skiplagged and Kiwi Collude to Deceive Flyers
Photo Credit: Southwest Airlines begins international service from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with flights to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in 2020.. Southwest sued Skiplagged in July 2021 for intellectual property violations. Southwest Airlines / Stephen M. Keller
Skift Take
The smart money has Southwest prevailing in this lawsuit against Skiplagged, given the airlines's 17-year history of beating back such alleged interlopers. On the other hand, when it came to an Orbitz lawsuit, Skiplagged knew how to bob and weave.
Citing multiple flight delays because of the sale of "hidden city tickets," Southwest Airlines filed a federal lawsuit against New York-based Skiplagged, and alleged that it works "in concert" with Czech-based online travel agency Kiwi.com to deceive the public and illegally use the airline's fare information.
Southwest has long seen it as a competitive advantage and barred online travel agencies from scraping its website and selling its flights without authorization, and in the lawsuit referenced five successful lawsuits barring online travel agencies from doing so since 2004. The unlucky defendants ranged from FareChase in 2004 to Roundpipe in 2019.
Southwest sued Kiwi.com in a still-pending lawsuit in January in federal court in the Northern District of Texas for trademark violations and unauthorized use of the airline's flight information, and on July 23 filed a lawsuit against Skiplagged on similar grounds in the same court. Southwest will try to consolidate the two lawsuits
