Status: December 20, 2021 4:30 p.m.
Are airline passengers allowed to cede their right to compensation in the event of long delays to a service provider? According to the Frankfurt district court, certain contractual clauses of the low-cost airline Ryanair are ineffective.
The Frankfurt district court has declared the airline Ryanair’s clauses illegal to prevent passengers from assigning their compensation claims to legal service providers
Passengers are entitled to lump-sum compensation payments of between 250 and 600 euros for a flight delay of at least three hours. According to a decision by the European Court of Justice, flight cancellations as a result of strikes are now considered to be liable to compensation.
Legal action with risks
However, in many cases airlines do not voluntarily recognize customer claims. Passengers are then faced with the decision to either enforce their claims themselves through legal action, bearing the cost and litigation risk, or to commission legal service providers. These then enforce the claims at their own risk – in the style of a collection service provider and, if necessary, in the course of a lawsuit. In the event of success, they retain part of the decision payment as commission.
According to the court, customers must be able to decide for themselves whether they pursue their claims after delays or flight cancellations or assign them to third parties.
Violation of Air Passenger Rights Regulation
According to the judgment, Ryanair had secured long processing times in the terms and conditions, only wanted to accept an assignment of rights to natural persons and also only make payments directly to the passengers. The Frankfurt headquarters for combating unfair competition had sued the company for this.
The Frankfurt judges found that all clauses violated the Passenger Rights Ordinance. Ryanair must accept that for customers, the route via passenger rights portals is often the simpler and less complicated way of enforcing their demands. Nor could the company rely on Irish law with a complex clause.
The organization had already won a similar, now legally binding judgment against the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air at the Berlin Regional Court. The Frankfurt decision (Az. 2-03 O 527/19), however, is not yet legally binding. A spokesman for the Frankfurt headquarters announced that he would go to the Federal Court of Justice if necessary.