RTK, the largest agency network in Germany and which has one of its most important financial lungs in the south of Gran Canaria, transferred the sales data, campaigns and commission rates of around 3 thousand travel agencies from other operators tourism to the tour operator FTI, which has Labranda as a hotel chain, for years. Thanks to the detailed sales data it received from RTK, FTI was offering some advantages, such as higher commissions to agents who wanted to continue their sales activities independently of tour operators. RTK shared its detailed sales data in areas such as agencies, operators, destinations and hotels in its network with FTI for 8 years.
FTI, which remained largely silent after the incident emerged, broke its silence and issued a brief statement that they ended the use of RTK data and that such incidents would not occur again. Stating that they do not have any information about the terms of the contract between RTK and the travel agencies, the company said: "We apologize if this situation caused any inconvenience between our sales partners."
Some affinities between RTK and FTI draw attention. For example, the Egyptian Sawiris family owns a large stake in both companies. The family owns 74,9 percent of RTK and 75,1 percent of FTI. The intimacy doesn't end there. Meine Raiffeisenbank owns a 25 percent stake in RTK, and the bank's president is also the head of RTK's supervisory board.
The data-sharing scandal, first uncovered by German business newspaper Handelsblatt, has become the hot topic of the German travel industry in recent weeks. The scandal, which shocked the industry, led to a loss of confidence in RTK and legal investigations were launched against RTK. RTK has a total of 4.200 travel agencies in its network, and the total sales volume of the agencies in its network is 3.500 billion euros. RTK jointly managed TUI Travel Star, which hosts 400 travel agencies, together with TUI, and Alpha Reisebüropartner, which hosts 620 travel agencies, together with Scahuinsland-Reisen.
The data stored in Excel shows how much revenue each agency generates from the sale of FTI reservations and how much revenue from the reservation sales of tour operators that compete with FTI such as TUI, Schauinsland Reisen. The data included not only the agents of the RTK network, but also to the network agents of the joint ventures TUI Travel Star and Reisebüropartner.
Among the privileges offered to agencies that use FTI; It includes 3 percent upsell commission, 10 to 11 percent base commission, priority helpline customer support, preferential treatment for family outings, roadshows and other events. RTK co-president Lars Helmreich and his team are at the center of the scandal. Helmreich has stepped down from his positions at RTK and TUI Travel Star until further notice. Following the Handelsblatt article, RTK was the subject of an extensive investigation into the matter by the law firm CMS. In the published findings, it was confirmed that data was shared with the FTI between 2015 and 2023. However, CMS said there were no violations of competition or criminal laws.
