CONSUMERS LAW
EU Court of Justice: in the event of cancellation of a flight, the airline company must also reimburse commissions collected by intermediaries when tickets are bought.
Mr Dirk Harms bought, for himself and his family, on the website opodo.de, tickets for a flight from Hamburg (Germany) to Faro (Portugal) with Vueling Airlines. As the flight was cancelled, the Harms family requested that Vueling Airlines reimburse it the price of €1108.88 which the family had paid to Opodo when those tickets were bought. Vueling Airlines agreed to reimburse the amount which it received from Opodo, namely €1031.88. However, it refused to also reimburse the remaining €77, which Opodo collected as commission.
The Amtsgericht Hamburg (Local Court, Hamburg, Germany), before which the proceedings were brought, asks the Court of Justice to interpret in that context the air passenger rights regulation.
The Amtsgericht Hamburg wishes to know whether the price of the ticket to be taken into consideration for the purposes of determining the reimbursement owed by the air carrier to a passenger in the event of cancellation of a flight includes the difference between the amount paid by that passenger and the amount received by the air carrier, which corresponds to a commission collected by a person acting as an intermediary between those two parties.
By today’s judgment, the Court answers that question in the affirmative, unless that commission was set without the knowledge of the air carrier, which it is for the referring court to ascertain.
That interpretation of the regulation corresponds to its objectives, which are to ensure a high level of protection for passengers while striking a balance between the interests of passengers and those of air carriers.
(Source: Press Release of the EU Court of Justice no. 128/2018 – Author and ownership of the contents: EU Court of Justice).
The Amtsgericht Hamburg (Local Court, Hamburg, Germany), before which the proceedings were brought, asks the Court of Justice to interpret in that context the air passenger rights regulation.
The Amtsgericht Hamburg wishes to know whether the price of the ticket to be taken into consideration for the purposes of determining the reimbursement owed by the air carrier to a passenger in the event of cancellation of a flight includes the difference between the amount paid by that passenger and the amount received by the air carrier, which corresponds to a commission collected by a person acting as an intermediary between those two parties.
By today’s judgment, the Court answers that question in the affirmative, unless that commission was set without the knowledge of the air carrier, which it is for the referring court to ascertain.
That interpretation of the regulation corresponds to its objectives, which are to ensure a high level of protection for passengers while striking a balance between the interests of passengers and those of air carriers.
(Source: Press Release of the EU Court of Justice no. 128/2018 – Author and ownership of the contents: EU Court of Justice).
