Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Flight booking systems must display final price at first instance, rules EU court

16 Jan 2015, 4:45 pm

Computerised air travel booking systems must present consumers with details of the total cost of flights and other air services from the first time the prices of those services are displayed, the EU's top court has ruled.

The judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) clarifies how rules on the operation of air services in the EU should be interpreted and follows a challenge made by a German consumer body against the way in which Air Berlin displayed its air fares on its booking system.

However, commercial and IT contracts expert Claire Edwards of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said the ruling could have implications for other online booking systems where compound pricing structures are prevalent.

“Although the CJEU ruling is specific to rules governing the provision of price information in the air travel industry, the principles established by the Court would be likely to be followed in the event that a similar case is brought against other compound pricing practices under more general consumer protection legislation,” Edwards said.

Under EU law, airline operators are obliged to notify consumers about any "applicable conditions" applied to air fares and rates when they present those fares or rates. The rules require operators to "at all times" indicate what the "final price" of air fares or rates is. This should include "all applicable taxes, and charges, surcharges and fees which are unavoidable and foreseeable at the time of publication", according to the rules.

Airline operators are also obliged to specify the stand-alone cost of air fares or rates as well as the individual costs of any taxes, airport charges and other charges, surcharges or fees that are added to those fares or rates. Any "optional price supplements" have to be "communicated in a clear, transparent and unambiguous way at the start of any booking process" and operators must ensure that consumers accept the charges on supplementary services "on an ‘opt-in’ basis".

The CJEU said that these rules mean, in practice, that "the final price to be paid must be indicated whenever the prices of air services are shown, including when they are shown for the first time".

It also ruled that "the final price to be paid must be indicated not only for the air service specifically selected by the customer, but also for each air service in respect of which the fare is shown".