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Europe launches investigation into airline cancellation practices

2021-03-02T20:49:21.129Z


Airlines have been repeatedly singled out for failing to provide refunds to customers who were prevented from traveling by the health crisis.


Many French people have seen their vacation dreams fly away with the health crisis.

And for many, getting reimbursed by airlines for canceled trips has become an obstacle course.

Read also: The recovery of global air traffic will be slower than expected in 2021

A situation that the European Commission has decided to look into.

The institution announced Monday, March 1 to launch

"a

coordinated

investigation

into the current cancellation practices of airlines

.

"

The aim

"is to collect additional information from airlines operating in the EU on how they inform consumers about their passenger rights and process reimbursement requests

," she said in a statement.

The Commission therefore invites companies which

"have persistent difficulties in reimbursing all consumers on time"

,

"to provide information on what they are doing to quickly resolve these difficulties"

.

Since the start of the health crisis, the UFC-Que Choisir denounces the failings of airlines in the reimbursement of canceled flights.

The consumers' association has stepped up actions to try to get them to win their case.

In April 2020, it gave formal notice to 57 companies for non-compliance with the right to reimbursement for canceled flights before bringing legal proceedings against twenty of them, including Air France, KLM, Ryanair and Lufthansa.

UFC-Que Choisir their criticism of having offered assets instead of a refund.

The latter is however compulsory,

"within seven days"

and

"at the price at which it was purchased"

according to European regulations.

France accused of inaction

At the same time, the European Commission had started infringement proceedings against member states that did not require reimbursement in the event of cancellation of trips or stays due to the pandemic due to the coronavirus.

She thus recalled that, if companies can offer assets to their customers, the latter are fundamentally entitled to a refund if they wish.

From today, since we have taken the Commission's decision on this matter, letters will be sent to Member States which violate this fundamental principle

,” said Margrethe Vestager, Vice-President of the Commission.

Read also: The interminable descent into hell of the airlines

On the side of France, UFC-Que Choisir denounced last June the country's inaction on this subject in a letter written by the president of the consumer association.

“So what is the French Government waiting for, which is demonstrating a deafening silence on the subject, to position itself and enforce the legislation instead of complicit by inaction in the violation of rights?”

He asked himself. , citing as an example Spain whose

"government this week put on notice 17 airlines which shamelessly flouted the right to reimbursement"

.

"The Ministry of Consumer Affairs also demanded that the contracts of travelers who accepted a voucher instead of a refund, if it was acquired with a false consent, be declared void,"

he added.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-03-02

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