Press Release: Consumers: European Commission steps up pressure on airlines to ensure websites selling tickets fully comply with EU law

On the eve of a meeting of 27 national enforcement agencies and stakeholder groups in Brussels, Vice President Tajani, EU Transport Commissioner and EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva stepped up pressure on airline companies selling tickets on the web to meet their legal obligation to fully comply with all the requirements of EU law. In a joint letter to the airline representatives, the two Commissioners set out a 30 point checklist of consumer rights which all web pages selling air tickets must respect. Following industry feedback, the checklist will be consolidated. The Commission's letter requested that members of the airline associations amend all websites to ensure they fully comply with all the listed obligations. A user friendly version of the checklist should also be made available on websites for consumers. The letter informed the airline representatives that the Commission intends to make public the results of 'health check' of the sector- an independent study which will identify compliant and non-compliant operators - in May 2009. The work with industry is taking place in parallel with additional efforts by the Commission to increase enforcement controls at national level. Commission Kuneva addressed Ministers at the Competition Council on 1st December 2008 calling on them to concentrate all the necessary additional efforts and resources on the airline investigation to enable a final wrap up in May 2009. The letter from Vice President Tajani and Commissioner Kuneva made it clear that if national authorities persistently fail to act on violations of the law, the Commission would need to consider infringement procedures.

European Commission: MEMO/08/756: Airline Sweep Investigation – Background information http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/08/756&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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