On Monday 1 March, the European Commission announced that it had launched an investigation into the practices of airline companies with regard to flight cancellations. Practices denounced in particular by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), which last July reported “thousands of complaints from dissatisfied air passengers” (see EUROPE 12533/16).
The investigation, carried out with national consumer enforcement authorities in EU and EEA countries (CPC), will “gather further information from airlines operating in the EU on how they inform consumers of their passenger rights and how they handle reimbursement requests”, says the Commission.
Forced to suspend their services massively and faced with serious liquidity problems since the beginning of the pandemic, many companies have stopped offering cash refunds to passengers whose flights had been cancelled. All they could offer them was the possibility of obtaining a voucher. A practice contrary to EU rights.
As part of the investigation launched on Monday, the Commission says that companies that have “persistent difficulties in reimbursing all consumers in due time”, are asked to provide, within 3 weeks, “information on what they are doing to rapidly address those difficulties”. The Commission and the CPC authorities will then follow up with the airlines. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)