A passenger who booked her flight through a travel agent can bring an action for compensation against the air carrier in the event of long delay before the court at the place of that flight’s departure, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in a judgment delivered on Thursday 26 March (Case C-215/18).
Mrs Libuše Králová concluded a package travel contract with a Czech travel agency that included a flight between Prague and Keflavík (Iceland) operated by Primera Air Scandinavia as well as accommodation in Iceland. As the flight was delayed for more than four hours, she brought an action for compensation against the Danish airline before the Czech courts under Regulation (261/2004) on air passenger rights.
This court questioned its territorial jurisdiction to settle this dispute. Under Regulation (44/2001) on jurisdiction, actions against an undertaking established in a given Member State must, in principle, be brought in that Member State. Special provisions also allow an appeal to the court of the place of performance of an obligation, but only when there is a contractual relationship between the concerned parties.
According to case law (Case C-204/08, see EUROPE 11887/25), this court would, for air transport services, be the court of the place of the flight’s departure. However, Mrs Králová concluded a contract with a travel agency and not with the carrier.
In its judgment, the Court points out that the concept of ‘operating air carrier’ subject to the obligations of the Regulation on air passengers’ rights includes an air carrier that operates a flight on behalf of a third party that has concluded a contract with a passenger.
In the present case, given the long delay to her flight, Mrs Králová may rely on the Regulation on air passenger rights against Primera Air Scandinavia, even in the absence of a contract between the passenger and the carrier.
The Court went on to point out that recourse to the special provisions of the Regulation on jurisdiction presupposes that there is a freely given commitment by one party to another. In that regard, it points out that an operating air carrier which, like Primera Air Scandinavia, has not concluded a contract with the passenger but owes obligations under the Air Passenger Rights Regulation to the passenger on behalf of a travel agency, must be regarded as fulfilling obligations that it has freely agreed to in relation to that agency.
In those circumstances, the Court notes that an action for compensation in the event of long flight delay brought by a passenger against the operating air carrier that is not the passenger’s contractual partner must be regarded as a matter relating to the contract. The passenger may therefore bring an action for compensation against the carrier before the court of the place of the flight’s departure, in accordance with case law.
See the judgment (in French): https://bit.ly/3dwMwXy (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)