The European Commission will present, on Wednesday 29 November, a legislative package aimed at revising the twenty-year-old European regulation governing air passenger rights (261/2004) and updating the EU directive on package travel and related travel services (2015/2302), in line with the promise it made after the health crisis.
These two proposals, grouped together in a ‘Mobility’ legislative package, are intended to draw lessons from the inconvenience and damage suffered by passengers during the Covid-19 crisis and its trail of flight cancellations and airline bankruptcies, without respect for travellers’ rights – in particular the right to choose between a refund and a voucher within 14 days.
Ahead of the presentation of these initiatives, the ‘European Consumer Organisation’ (BEUC), which took part in the preliminary consultation, pointed out at a press briefing on Friday 24 November that the Commission’s Transport Department (DG MOVE) “had promised consistency between these two long-awaited pieces of legislation”. A promise which, according to BEUC, may not be kept.
Passenger rights. The proposal should focus on the enforcement of rules on passenger information on compensation and refunds, re-routing of passengers, booking intermediaries and multimodal transport (for a journey combining, for example, rail and air). These measures would be “very positive steps forward, but not enough”, according to the BEUC.
In the absence of a clear business-to-business (B2B) reimbursement rule for all intermediaries, “this will be a fake protection”, explained BEUC’s legal expert Steven Berger. He added: “You will only be protected if the intermediary has not informed you. This is not protection, but a right to be informed that you will not be protected! So it won’t be a change for consumers”.
Two key points, in line with the commitments made by DG MOVE in its ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy’, are also in danger of being dropped:
- the introduction of mandatory insolvency protection schemes for airlines could be shelved, despite the substantial evidence provided by consumer representatives on the damage suffered by passengers (400 euro loss per passenger), but also by the industry;
- the initial plan to introduce a right for consumers to cancel their tickets free of charge in times of crisis could also be withdrawn from the initiative, if the airline maintains the flight, which, in BEUC’s opinion, would leave “a massive unresolved legal vacuum, very damaging for consumers”.
Package tours. The 1995 directive, which covers travel combining various elements (flights, accommodation, car hire, etc.) and has incorporated digital developments in the booking market, already provides for: - the obligation for travel organisers and suppliers to inform consumers of their rights before they make any contractual commitment; - the right to cancel a trip if the price increases by more than 8%; - three nights’ hotel accommodation paid for by the organiser in the event of an unavoidable or unforeseeable event preventing the traveller from returning home within the planned timeframe.
In particular, the proposed revision should bring greater clarity to travel warnings in times of crisis, cap advance payments except in the case of compulsory deposits, and clarify the right to cancel a trip and the rules for protecting consumers against the insolvency of service providers to avoid consumers waiting four years to be reimbursed.
Consistency? “We are more satisfied with the project on package travel than with the one on passenger rights, which has a low profile”, summarised Mr Berger. He attributed the “lack of coherence” between the two forthcoming texts to “the reluctance of DG MOVE to align travellers’ rights regimes more closely”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)