Introduction

In the first quarter of 2021, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) closed its investigations regarding the possible violation of passengers' rights under EC Regulation 261/2004 by issuing a commitment decision. Such investigations had been started against some domestic and foreign airlines over their decision to issue vouchers to passengers instead of reimbursing the price of flights cancelled "at a time and for destinations where the governmental lockdown measures did no longer apply".

The ICA ruled that the corrective measures adopted by the airlines to protect passengers whose flights were cancelled – particularly the 'restoring' of the offer to all passengers of the choice between an alternative flight, a voucher or a cash refund – were fully compliant with the applicable EU and Italian rules and "suitable of removing the unfair commercial practices", as originally outlined in the investigation opening notices.

Facts

The ICA initiated the investigations – and relevant interim sub-proceedings – in 2020, in response to several passengers' complaints about cancellations of flights when travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic had been lifted. According to the ICA, the airlines offered passengers vouchers and not cash reimbursements for the cancelled flights and failed to provide adequate information to customers about their rights in case of cancellations.

To address the issues raised by the ICA, the airlines under investigation strengthened their measures to assist passengers. In particular, immediately after the investigations had been opened, the airlines implemented an automatic procedure to refund tickets for all flights cancelled from 3 June 2020 onwards and started offering to all passengers the choice between an alternative flight, a voucher or a cash refund. The airlines also improved their consumer support measures through a significant increase in the number of their respective call centre staff.

ICA found these measures sufficient to not adopt any precautionary measures following the conclusion of interim sub-proceedings against the airlines.

At a later stage in the investigations, the carriers under investigation took further consumer support measures. In particular, the airlines resolved to email all passengers who had purchased tickets for flights cancelled from 3 June 2020 onwards and who had not yet taken any actions to inform them of all of the available options – namely, to:

  • change their booking at no additional charge;
  • request a refund; or
  • request a voucher for the same value of the ticket as originally purchased.

Further, the airlines resolved to email all passengers who had already requested or received a voucher to inform them of the opportunity to reconsider their choice by requesting a refund in lieu of the voucher.

Decision

In light of these commitments, the ICA resolved to:

  • terminate its investigations with a decision under Article 17 of ICA Regulation 25411/2015;
  • not issue any penalties against the airlines; and
  • turn the airlines' commitments into a legally binding ICA decision.