The right to free movement means that every EU citizen is entitled to travel freely around the Member States of the European Union, and settle anywhere within its territory. No special formalities are required to enter an EU country. This fundamental right extends to members of the EU citizen’s family, and applies regardless of their situation or the reason for travel or residence.
All European airlines, travel agents, tour operators and all other businesses involved in providing air transport services must observe your rights. These rights relate to issues such as your right to receive accurate information about flights and reservations, obligations of travel agents, liability in the event of loss of baggage or accidents and compensation for overbooked flights.
Since July 2007, airlines and tour operators may not refuse to carry passengers, or to take bookings, on the basis of reduced mobility. This applies only to flights from airports in the EU. Airport authorities are obliged to provide assistance without extra cost to the person concerned but it may levy a charge on all passengers. The EU has been monitoring travel not only from a mobility point of view, but also from a consumer point of view.
The European Parliament has approved a regulation on common rules for the operation of air transport services in the EU, which will oblige EU airline companies to publish final ticket prices with taxes included. This is critical for the economic and effective operation of the market in air transport services on the basis of harmonised rules providing a level playing field, MEPs said. Currently, passengers are being attracted by EU airline companies that publish ticket prices without taxes, due to the lack of legal certainty and transparency. By the end of the year it will change. This regulation promotes price transparency for the passenger and fair prices.
The airline ticket findings came to light as part of an EU airline sweep, a systematic check carried out in different EU countries simultaneously to investigate breaches in consumer law.
The sweep uncovered problems with ticket sales throughout the airline industry, explained consumer commissioner Meglena Kuneva, “I hope operators have now realised the determination of the commission to act on behalf of consumers where necessary” adding that if the airlines in question don’t improve their sales and marketing practices by 1 May, 2009, the commission “will have no choice but to intervene”.
The EU wants to see the first price advertised being the final price paid, any limitations on special offers being clearly flagged, and fair contracts available in the consumer’s native language.
Enforcement work will be stepped up, and the EU will monitor developments between now and May 2009 before deciding where it needs to intervene.
Following the enforcement action by enforcement authorities, so far, results show that more than half of the sites found with irregularities have now been corrected. This is a positive trend and is a signal that this new kind of joint enforcement action works well. Most companies accepted to rapidly change their website, when informed about the misleading parts they contained, which shows that a majority of companies are willing to co-operate to improve consumer rights. The main problems found concerned insufficient or unclear information about price, where the price is split into a series of diverse charges, and only becomes clear at the end of the booking process.
This was also true for the practice relating to special offers where there was eye-catching marketing but which were difficult if not impossible to find in reality. Unclear information on contract terms, either missing, in another language, or illegible due to use of characters of another language was another main problem. The biggest problem found concerned the information given on the final air ticket prices. A widely spread practice reported by authorities consists in dividing the final price of an air ticket into different components, using the airfare for advertising purposes and so attracting consumers to a given ticket selling site with what seem cheap flights. For the consumers, the final price to pay when actually booking the ticket is generally higher due to a series added charges that vary from so called “airport charges” to handling fees, booking fees or charges related to credit card payments, priority booking, luggage, fuel etc.
The “airline sweep”, carried out by 15 EU countries in September, was more than just a fact-finding exercise; the ultimate goal is to enforce consumer rights. One must be reminded that forming part of the European Union, we have safeguarded our rights more consistently on all fronts. This may not have seemed like a big issue to many, but to me it represents an institution that is there to protect and support one and all, at any point. We benefit from the European Union not just through funding and agreements, but our rights are also safeguarded in a way which we may start taking for granted now that we form part of the eu, but we must not forget that these wouldn’t automatically apply to us hadn’t we formed part in 2004.
If it were just Malta against these massive international airline companies, it would have seemed like a difficult task. However, forming part of the EU means that we are like David against the Goliaths.
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