European Union (“EU”) passenger rights apply annually to more than 13 billion passengers. However, many passengers continue to face problems when trying to enforce their rights, mainly because they are not aware of the relevant rules.
The EU wishes to create more awareness of the relevant passenger rights and (amongst other things) enhance rights relating to refunds when flight bookings are made via an intermediary, improve travel conditions for passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility and quality service standards and establish uniform enforcement and redress provisions.
The EU Commission has therefore recently considered the effectiveness of the current passenger rights for EU citizens when they are travelling by air, rail, sea or coach / bus and set out its proposals to provide better rights for passengers and raise awareness of those rights.
Below, we have summarised some of the key proposed changes to the existing passenger rights for the various modes of transport within the EU.
Under the current rules, when passengers book air travel through an intermediary (e.g., a travel agent, airline agent or other ticket vendor, or a tour operator who sells a package holiday which includes flights) it is not clear from whom or when the passenger can claim a refund when a flight is cancelled.
Under the new proposals (and similar to existing reimbursement rights for rail, road and sea passengers in the EU), EU passengers will be able to claim refunds for cancelled flights through either the intermediary or the airline, within certain updated deadlines.
The airline and the intermediary first must agree how the passenger will receive a refund if this becomes due (i.e., will the refund come from the airline or the intermediary?).
Once the refund procedure has been agreed, the airline and intermediary must let the passenger know who will be responsible for making the refund at the time of booking and in the booking confirmation documents.
If the airline is refunding the passenger, the refund must be made within seven days of the date of the cancellation (as is the case now). If the refund will come from the intermediary, airlines must transfer the refund to the intermediary within seven days from the date of cancellation. The intermediary then has another seven days to pass the refund payment on to the passenger. If this doesn’t happen, the passenger will be entitled to claim the refund directly from the airline. Any reimbursements must be free of charge.
Even if a passenger has booked a flight through an intermediary, the airline must still be able to contact the passenger directly to inform them of crucial travel information such as flight schedule changes, cancellations, delays and relevant safety information (e.g., the EU’s list of banned airlines).
The EC has therefore proposed that intermediaries must share the contact details of the passenger with the airline when the flight booking is made. The airline will only be permitted to use the passenger’s contact details for passing on such crucial travel information and not any other purpose (e.g., marketing emails). The passenger’s contact details must then be deleted within 72 hours after the completion of the flight, unless for the airline needs to retain them to provide the passenger with re-routing, reimbursement or compensation. The usual GDPR rules regarding the processing of personal data will apply.
Intermediaries must also inform the airline that it has booked a ticket for a passenger, as an intermediary, as well as providing its contact information (e.g., email address) with the airline at the time of booking. The intermediary can also opt-in to receive the relevant flight information at the same time as the passenger (if the intermediary wishes to do so).
Under the new proposals, airlines and intermediaries will also be required to ensure that passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility can travel with personal assistants, free of charge. Along with this, airlines and intermediaries must make it possible for personal assistants to sit next to the passenger with disabilities or reduced mobility, where it is practicable to do so. (Note, these rights already exist for rail, sea and road passengers.)
In addition to the mode-specific proposals above, the following proposals have been made for passengers for all modes of transport (air, sea, rail, bus and coach services):
Transport operators (e.g., airlines, cruise companies, rail service providers, etc.) must set, manage and monitor certain quality service standards and capture this information in a report. The report must cover (amongst other things) statistics on, and reasons for, delays and cancellations, customer complaints and information on the ways in which the operator has provided assistance to disabled passengers.
This report must be produced every two years, made available to the public (by publishing it on the operator’s website) and not include any personal data.
Under the proposed revisions passengers must be provided with standardised forms to use to make compensation and refund requests. The forms must also be accessible for people with disabilities and reduced mobility.
The operator or intermediary’s website must inform passengers of how the forms can be submitted. The forms themselves will be provided by the European Commission and available to download on its website, in all EU languages.
National regulators must monitor transport operators and intermediaries’ compliance with the relevant passenger rights regulation through the use of risk assessments. The risk assessment will be based on a factual assessment that takes into account complaints made by passengers to the regulator, the operator’s quality service standards report, and the regulator’s own monitoring activities (which could include audits, inspections, interviews, verifications and examination of documents).
The EU Commission first published the proposal setting out the suggested revisions in November 2023. As at the date of this article, the proposals are still going through various legislative procedures (which could include potential amendments to the proposals) via the EU Parliament and EU Council. The legislative procedures must be completed before the proposals can become EU law.
In the meantime, affected businesses should start to consider how they may be impacted by the revisions and the steps or changes they may need to make to comply with the new laws.
If you think that your business may be affected by any of these proposals and you would like to discuss these with us in more detail, please contact us.