The European Commission today introduced infringement proceedings opposed to ten EU countries for failing to enforce the EU passenger rights law requiring airlines to bill for refunds for passenger flights during the coronavirus crisis.
Infringement proceedings have been opened against France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Czechia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Croatia and Cyprus for failing to enforce the rule.
Citizens are dependent on national EU governments for enforcing EU law, but several countries have asked the Commission to suspend the law and allow airlines to issue vouchers to alleviate their liquidity problems and prevent bankruptcies. Some countries have openly said they will not enforce the law in order to protect their airlines. The Commission, however, has insisted that passenger protections must continue to apply even during the crisis. In May they recommended that airlines make vouchers more attractive to customers by extending their validity and making them transferable.
“Throughout this crisis, the Commission has consistently made clear that consumer rights remain valid in the current unprecedented context and national measures to support the industry must not lower them,” the Commission said in its infringement announcement. “In these ten member states, specific national rules on package travel are still applicable allowing organisers of package travel to issue vouchers, instead of reimbursement in money, for cancelled trips, or to postpone reimbursement far beyond the 14-day period”.
The ten countries have ten days to rectify the situation or they will start facing fines.
The decision was applauded by consumers organisation BEUC, which has said citizens shouldn’t have to doubly fund bailouts for the airlines, once as taxpayers for bailouts and the others as passengers stuck with unusable vouchers.
“Consumers deserve not to be used as reasonable credits to rescue the industry,” said Monique Goyens, BEUC’s executive director. “However, these procedures only apply to countries that have not yet implemented non-EU emergency measures. While we welcome this vital report, countries that have already completed these non-compliant measures are not affected.
Some countries, such as the Netherlands, have put in place a national law that complies with the rules, but have bratably stated that they do not plan to put it into effect. Today’s infringement action applies only to countries whose national legislation is incompatible with EU law, but not to countries that refuse to apply their own law.
“All EU consumers who have been forced to settle for vouchers when implementing these national transitional coVID-19 measures deserve to be entitled to a full refund if they wish,” he said. “It is now up to governments to ensure that those who want it are reimbursed and to repair confidence in the tourism sector.”
Several teams of customers have already filed opposing legal actions with airlines. German corporate flightright sued companies such as Ryanair, KLM, Swiss and Lufthansa on behalf of 20,000 passengers who obtained a refund.
Dave Keating is in Brussels, where he has covered EU policy and policy for 14 years.