EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva today published the mid term report on an EU wide enforcement investigation - involving 15 EU national authorities as well as Norway - against misleading advertising and unfair practices on airline ticket selling websites.

Last September, 15 EU member states plus Norway checked hundreds of websites across the EU for compliance with consumer law. They targeted pricing practices, availability of offers and unfair contract terms.

Serious problems
The sweep revealed that there were serious and persistent problems for consumers throughout the airline sector as a whole. The biggest problem was misleading prices, but there were also breaches related to unfair contract terms and problems with non-availability of advertised offers.

1 in 3 websites were found to have a breach of EU consumer law, and have been followed up with enforcement action over the last 7 months. 50 percent of these websites have been corrected during this time.  Many companies have responded quickly to contacts from national authorities. 

Cross-border cases
The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman had already before the sweep entered into discussions with national airlines and websites selling airline tickets (e.g. eBookers) about the issue of using pre checked boxes to include additional services (for instance insurance) when booking flight tickets (negative option selling).

The Norwegian airlines had already accepted to refrain from this unfair practice, and during the latter parts of 2007 all the major travel websites that sell airline tickets to Norwegian consumers accepted to do the same (10 in all).

When looking at cross-border cases the Consumer Ombudsman used the practice set out in Norway regarding price information and negative option selling and tried to identify foreign airlines that did not meet the demands we have set at the national level.

Clear violations
The Consumer Ombudsman found that three foreign airlines operated in conflict with EU consumer law.
Blue 1 (Finland) included insurance in case of cancellation as a pre-chosen option for customers. The Consumer Ombudsman referred the case to Finland and the airline changed its practice.

Austrian Airlines (Austria) had a booking fee of 100 NOK per ticket that was not included in the advertised prices on the front page of the company´s website. The case was referred to Austria and the advertising was amended to include all price elements in all advertising.

Ryanair (Irland) included the right to priority boarding as a pre-chosen option and charged a fee of 50 NOK for this. The Consumer Ombudsman felt that this practice was unfair and the Irish CA has now asked Ryanair to change this.

The company also charges a fee when booking with all credit cards other than Visa Electron. The size of the fee depends on what card the consumer is using. The fees are not included in the advertised prices. This matter was considered by the Irish CA, but they felt that the practice was not in conflict with the legal framework the way this is interpreted in Ireland.

See also the press release from the EU Commission and the Commissions web page.

For further information, please contact:
Frode Elton Haug, Head of Section at the Consumer Ombudsman
(Tel: 98 66 05 66)