Because the Antitrust Authority upsets Ryanair with a millionaire fine
Ryanair will have to pay a € 4.2 million fine for unfair commercial practices. All the details on the Antitrust resolution
Ryanair will have to pay a € 4.2 million fine for unfair commercial practices . The air transport sector has been among the most battered by a year of pandemic and travel blocking. However, this does not mean that the Agcm (Competition and Market Authority) makes discounts for unfair practices and detrimental to consumers ' rights .
Information gap for Ryanair
The Market Guarantor holds Ryanair responsible for numerous violations both in relation to the information offered to users and for hindering the enjoyment of consumers' rights. In particular, the Authority acknowledges that Ryanair has "provided incomplete and ambiguous information", regarding the causes of cancellation of flights after June 3, 2020, and "on the rights actually due to passengers, failing to provide adequate and main evidence of the possibility cash refund "and only offering a replacement voucher. Furthermore, travelers who have managed to request a full refund complain that they have received this refund over a very long time.
Unreachable customer service
But this is not the only thing that is being contested by the Irish carrier. Ryanair would also have created considerable difficulties in contacting customer assistance services "precisely in the period in which it proceeded to make a significant number of cancellations ". Basically, customers could not receive an answer to requests for information on the use of vouchers.
Voucher: the "Cura Italia" decree violated
The Irish company has also violated the rule, provided for by art. 88-bis of the Cura Italia decree (the first in the series of decrees issued to respond to the economic emergency of the covid-19 pandemic), which ensured a duration of 18 months for vouchers issued due to travel restrictions. This practice continued long after the first emergency phases. "Even after November 6, 2020, having continued to impose obstacles to consumers by not recognizing a refreshment for the cancellations of flights requested by them, in contrast with the provisions of the relevant emergency regulations and placing limitations and charges on the use of vouchers already issued" , we read in the provision.
Ryanair's misleading advertising according to Agcm
Ryanair is also accused of having conveyed inaccurate information in its advertising campaigns. In the period from June 2020 to January 2021, Ryanair released an advertising campaign with which it invited consumers to purchase tickets, proposing the possibility of changing flights without paying any penalty or supplement . In truth, there was a supplement, “it appeared that the price of the ticket applied for the case of a flight change was higher than that normally on sale at the same time – writes the Authority -. There was also no indication of an important limitation of the same promotion, namely that the flight change had to be made up to seven days before departure, otherwise the flight change penalty would have to be paid anyway ".
The fine with the discount
For all these reasons, the AGCM imposed a total fine of 4.2 million euros on Ryanair . A fine with the discount motivated precisely by the difficult situation in which the airlines find themselves. In the first instance, regarding the first set of violations (use of vouchers, refunds made with long times and difficulties in contacting customer service), the AGCM chaired by Roberto Rustichelli had decided to "determine the amount of the applicable pecuniary administrative sanction to Ryanair DAC in the amount of € 4,000,000 ”. However, in consideration of " the serious economic loss suffered by the Carrier in the period March 2020 – March 2021, equal to [50-100%] of turnover compared to the same period of the previous year" and the "context – operational and economic – objectively exceptional in which the Company came to operate ”, the fine was reduced to € 2,800,000. 150. The same goes for the second set of violations, that relating to information defects in the advertising campaign. Initially the fine imposed was 2,000,000 euros, then lowered to 1,400,000 euros.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/perche-lantitrust-turba-ryanair-con-una-multa-milionaria/ on Tue, 25 May 2021 12:59:24 +0000.