Could other businesses offer a Chairman's Lounge?

[RailFlyer]

Firstly, not sure if this is the correct place to post this, if not can somebody please move it.

I had a thought this morning while reading a thread about chairman's lounge membership and dreaming about what I would need to do/achieve to get there myself one day. I wondered if any of the legally knowledgeable in this community could comment on how close such schemes are to be considered bribery? Take the company I work for as an example. Most of our contracts are with large government departments. If we started our own "Chairman's Lounge" for our favourite customers (i.e the guys who make the decisions on major tenders) and lets say offered them free 5 star catering when ever they happened to be passing our offices (on personal or work journeys) etc. I think our lawyers would say a big cautious No. So why are airlines different? Why are they allowed to give perks to government (for example) decision makers, when our company makes it very clear to us that anything above the value of a bottle of wine at Christmas needs to be approved by legal?

I guess to a lesser extent standard FF schemes for business travel, which incentivise employees to fly with a certain airline rather than the one on the day that is best for their company for their own personal gain, are similarly questionable?

This is just a fun hypothetical question. I have no plans to bring down QFF (why would I want to when one day, I might even make WP!?)

 

[elbarto]

Theoretically there's nothing stopping business from setting up a scheme to give preferential treatment to high value customers. The showering of gifts on current and potential clients is common place in the private sector, but it's a big no no in government. Airlines get away with it because, prior to WOAG, I don't believe airlines had to tender for government business. And you'll find that the freebies like CL memberships are only for MPs and department secretaries.

 

[richie9x]

Many large companies have corporate boxes at sports stadiums. Which I guess are similar in concept. Often representatives from those companies who have the boxes invite their top customers to attend various events.

Different customers are governed by different rules about what they gifts they can accept. For example the police have very strict rules about what they can accept. There are often ways to work around it. For example you can often work around it with government customer my asking them to present a paper at conference in return for covering all their expenses to attend the conference and associated events.

 

[benmay]

Interesting point. I don't have an answer, but yes, it's essentially legalised bribery ;-)

 

[Hvr]

One of the reasons lounges work is that when you fly you must be at the airport a certain period of time before your plane is due to depart. Therefore, you have a captive audience with a legitimate reason for being on the premises.

Anybody who works for the government and accepts a gift such as CL membership must declare it to their employer. I doubt if your hypothetical proposal could be justified on business grounds let alone pass the smell test.