Skift Take
It has to do with time that the airline companies refund travelers considering that it was clear they were breaking European Union customer rules throughout the early days of the pandemic.
Rashaad Jorden
A group of European airlines settled on Thursday to refund guests whose flights were canceled throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and committed to offer much better details on guests’ rights in future.
After talks with the European Commission, 16 airlines consented to clear refund backlogs, to much better inform travelers when business would cancel flights and to offer coupons just when guests picked them.
The airlines included Air France-KLM, British Airways, Easyjet, Lufthansa, Ryanair, TAP, and Wizz Air among others.
“In the early stage of the pandemic, some airline companies pressed vouchers on passengers,” Didier Reynders, European commissioner for justice, stated in a declaration. “They were acting against EU consumer defense rules. That was unacceptable,” he stated.
National authorities in individual EU states are responsible for the enforcement of EU customer protection laws. The EU law, the Consumer Defense Cooperation Policy, has actually produced a network of state enforcers to collaborate on such concerns.
The EU Commission said this was the greatest Consumer Protection Cooperation action in the CPC network’s history and the very first action that was based on an alert from the Commission.
“Airlines have actually breached European consumer rights on a massive scale throughout the pandemic,” Monique Goyens, general director of the European Customer Organisation CEUC, which led the problem to the EU in July 2020, said in an emailed statement.
“It’s time for airlines to tidy up their act … Many consumers throughout Europe are still awaiting their money back, for flights canceled throughout the very first lockdowns in 2020.”
EU transport chief Adina Valean likewise invited the agreement, including that it will bring back trust between passengers and airlines. “The healing of the air transportation sector depends on this,” she said.
(Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine; Modifying by Kirsten Donovan)
This article was written by Marine Strauss from Reuters and was legally licensed through the Market Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected]