On Tuesday 19 May, the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions considered a Spanish petition on the management of flights and cancelled trips by air carriers and travel agencies during the Covid-19 outbreak (see EUROPE 12458/10).
Invited to speak about this issue, Blanca Rodriguez Galindo, who was representing the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), focused in particular on one aspect of the petition, namely the provision of misleading information to customers.
“The petitioner signals that some air carriers were giving misleading information to customers, pretending the flight was still operating when they were not, as there was an impossibility to travel in any case”, summarised Ms Rodriguez Galindo, noting that the Commission “was notified” and was addressing the problem.
“We will be discussing this with the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network to explain what they need to do in this regard”, she added.
She was also careful to detail the Commission's position on the reimbursement of cancelled flights and journeys (see EUROPE 12486/7) and to reiterate that a letter had been sent to the 27 Member States reminding them of the rules with which they are required to comply.
Their replies are expected by the end of the month, the DG COMP representative also reported.
As a reminder, the Commission also agreed to write to 12 Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal) which have taken measures which are contrary to the rights of passengers and travellers, in order to call them to order.
It is not up to the Commissioner to deal with each case individually, as the Member State authorities are considered competent in this area, Ms Rodriguez Galindo said. “It is indeed the Member States who have to deal with individual petitions. However, active monitoring by European consumer protection networks will be necessary”, said Cristina Maestre (S&D, Spain). (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)