In the event of a flight cancellation, airlines must also refund commissions paid to intermediaries when the flight tickets were purchased, as long as it was aware of these, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in a judgment returned on Wednesday 12 September (case C-601/17).
One Mr Harms purchased flight tickets on the website opodo.de for a Hamburg-Faro flight with Vueling Airlines. As the flight was cancelled, he asked the airline to reimburse the sum of €1108.88 paid to Opodo when purchasing the tickets. Vueling Airlines only agreed to pay back part of the amount, refusing to cover the €77 taken by Opodo as commission. Mr Harms challenged this decision before the German courts.
Having had the case referred to it by Hamburg District Court, the Court of Justice has found in favour of the plaintiff. It finds that Regulation (261/2004) on the rights of airline passengers aims to ensure a high level of protection for passengers. A request for the reimbursement of an airline ticket must therefore include the commission paid to intermediaries in the transaction between the traveller and the airline.
This would, however, not be the case if the commission had been charged without the airline's knowledge, a matter that the German court must establish, the Court added. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)