Brussels, 28/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European has until 31 May to inform European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros of the measures it has taken to prevent misleading information being given to air passengers. If this information is not forthcoming, the Ombudsman could open an investigation into a potential systemic problem, according to a press release published on Thursday 28 April. The Ombudsman's criticism follows a complaint from the European Regions Airline Association (ERAA) about, inter alia, inaccurate information on compensation for delayed luggage during the volcanic ash crisis in 2010 (see EUROPE 10120 and 10121). Diamandouros was critical, too, of the time it took the Commission to remove the incorrect information from websites.
The press release says that on 4 May 2010, the European Commission published information for air passengers whose flights had been cancelled following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland on different websites. This information contained a question and answer (Q&A) document. One day later, the ERAA sent an urgent e-mail to the Commission, drawing its attention to what it considered to be misleading information.
The information in question included a paragraph on delayed luggage. The Q&A document implied, wrongly in the view of the ERAA, that passengers had an automatic right to compensation in all cases involving delayed luggage. It took the Commission two weeks to conclude that part of the Q&A document was, indeed, misleading and more than a month to remove it from the websites. The Ombudsman said that much more rapid action should have been taken because the relevance of this air passenger information diminished as the situation at European airports began to return to normal.
This is the second time that the Ombudsman has found that the Commission has published misleading air passenger information. The previous time, in 2007, related to information on the right to compensation and assistance in cases of denied boarding and flight cancellation or delay. Thus, Diamandouros announced that, depending on the information supplied by the Commission by the end of May 2011, an investigation into may be necessary. (A.By./transl.rt)