WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (AP) — In a first for an online travel company, http://travelocity.com/ has been fined by federal regulators for booking trips between the United States and Cuba in violation of a 45-year-old embargo.
http://travelocity.com/ paid $182,750 this month to settle a complaint brought by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department, which said the company had violated the prohibition nearly 1,500 times from January 1998 to April 2004.
“The trips to Cuba were unintentionally permitted to be booked by consumers online because of some technical failures several years ago, and it’s just now being finally settled” with that office, a Travelocity spokesman, Joel Frey, wrote in an e-mail message. “In no way did the company intend to allow bookings for trips to Cuba, and the company has fully cooperated with O.F.A.C. and implemented corrective measures.”
Travelocity, based in Southlake, Tex., is owned by the Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was taken private this year by affiliates of Silver Lake Partners and TPG.
The New York Times
http://travelocity.com/ paid $182,750 this month to settle a complaint brought by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department, which said the company had violated the prohibition nearly 1,500 times from January 1998 to April 2004.
“The trips to Cuba were unintentionally permitted to be booked by consumers online because of some technical failures several years ago, and it’s just now being finally settled” with that office, a Travelocity spokesman, Joel Frey, wrote in an e-mail message. “In no way did the company intend to allow bookings for trips to Cuba, and the company has fully cooperated with O.F.A.C. and implemented corrective measures.”
Travelocity, based in Southlake, Tex., is owned by the Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was taken private this year by affiliates of Silver Lake Partners and TPG.
The New York Times