Sabre has filed a lawsuit against British Airways after the airline refused to refund its tax bill of almost half a million dollars.
The Texas-based tech firm, which provides one of the global distribution systems used by BA to take bookings from agents, said the airline agreed in a contract signed in 1991 that it would reimburse Sabre for any taxes it incurred as a result of doing business with BA.
In 2020, the UK Government introduced a Digital Services Tax (DST), which imposes a 2% levy on revenues of tech firms that earn money from their software that is used in the UK.
In 2022, the UK tax office, HMRC, confirmed that the DST applied to global distribution systems, like Sabre and, in 2024, Sabre paid HMRC $453,863 in DST.
In August 2025, Sabre invoiced BA for the DST bill, but the airline has allegedly refused to accept that that DST is a tax as defined in its 34-year-old agreement with the tech firm.
After months of failed negotiations, Sabre has filed a lawsuit in the Dallas, which says that BA committed in the service agreement to ‘various responsibilities including, but not limited to, the reimbursement of all domestic and foreign taxes Sabre incurs as a result of the parties’ association’.
It added: “Although Sabre considers British Airways a valuable commercial partner, British Airways’ refusal to classify DST as a ‘tax’ that is subject to reimbursement has left Sabre with no other option than to commence this dispute.”
