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EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva has published the mid term report on an EU wide enforcement investigation against misleading advertising and unfair practices on airline ticket selling websites.

Ripped off 

One in three websites surveyed (137 out of 386 originally checked by the 13 reporting countries) have had to be followed up with enforcement action over the last seven months for breaches of EU consumer law. Over half of those websites have been corrected during this time.

Kuneva called it unacceptable that one in three consumers going to book a plane ticket online is being ripped off or mislead and confused.

“The report shows there are serious and persistent problems with ticket sales throughout the airline industry as a whole. These findings send a political signal we cannot ignore,” the Commissioner added.

Kuneva said that her message to their airline industry was clear: act now or the EU will act.

“We will need to see credible evidence of improvement to clean up these sales and marketing practices within the airline sector by May 1st next year or we will be left with no choice but to intervene," Kuneva warned.

Misleading pricing 

The Commission's mid term report on the airline ticket investigation provides a "snap shot" of the state of play of the enforcement work, based on the available data for 13 countries, on 22 February 2008.

The investigation focused on misleading pricing, availability of offers and unfair contract terms, including pre-checked boxes and clear contract terms available in the language of the consumer.

The probe found that many sites had multiple problems. Misleading pricing emerged as the biggest problem, found in 58 per cent of the sites under investigation.

Irregularities related to contract terms were found in 49 per cent of those sites, including missing or wrong language versions and pre-checked boxes for optional services.

Problems with non-availability of advertised offers appeared in 15 per cent of the sites. The problems exist across the airline industry as a whole – airlines and tour operators.

Unfair contract terms 

The report concludes that the distinction between so-called low fare and traditional airlines is increasingly blurred in practice.

Of the 79 sites being investigated because of problems of misleading pricing, 44 (56 per cent) sites are airlines, 27 (34 per cent) sites are travel agencies/tour operators, and 8 (10 per cent) sites were other types such as price comparison sites.

Of the 21 websites sites with problems to do with the availability of offers, 12 (57 per cent) sites were airlines, 6 (28 per cent) sites were travel agencies and 3 were "other".

Of the 67 sites being investigated for unfair contract terms, 26 (39 per cent) sites were airlines, 34 (51 per cent) sites were travel agencies and 7 (10 per cent) sites were "other".

The problems persist amongst a wide range of companies. The 137 websites under investigation represent about 80 companies – including large brand names and lesser known companies.

Enforcement rate 

Enforcement levels for national and cross border enforcement differ substantially.  The report shows a 55 per cent enforcement/correction rate (50 out of 90), for national sites, where authorities are dealing with companies based in their own country.

This compares to a 12 per cent enforcement rate (5 out of 42) for cross border cases, where national authorities are requesting assistance from an authority in another country to enforce the law with a company based in that member state.

Legal constraints prevent the majority of member states from publishing company names at this stage, while administrative or legal proceedings are ongoing.

EU Commissioner Kuneva said that this was a key issue for the future functioning of the network. Norway and Sweden have made public lists of company websites under investigation.

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Related links

• European Commission