Norway's competition watchdog raided Norwegian offices of Scandinavian airline SAS on Tuesday to obtain information about whether it was illegally cutting prices to force a competitor out of business.
"The aim is to obtain information linked to the question of whether (SAS Norwegian unit) SAS Braathens has a price policy involving an abuse of a dominant position," the Norwegian Competition Authority said in a statement to the Oslo bourse.
Budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle has accused SAS Braathens of trying to drive it to the wall by cutting prices. "SAS Braathens is a dominant actor in domestic flights in Norway," the authority said.
"The Norwegian Competition Authority is now investigating whether SAS Braathens has broken the rule forbidding misuse of a dominant position by setting prices below costs to eliminate competition," it added.
SAS officials said the raid had taken place at offices near Oslo.
"They are searching through documents and things here, and we are cooperating well with them and giving them access to what they want, because we realise this is their job," SAS Braathens spokeswoman Siv Meisingseth said.
"They have told us that they can spend 10 days doing this," she added. SAS has repeatedly denied trying to force Norwegian Air Shuttle out of business.
SAS said in a statement that the securing of evidence by the competition authority did not mean that SAS Braathens had violated competition rules and did not form grounds to say anything about the result of the investigation.
