The Ministry of Consumer Affairs decides to sanction five airlines for abusive practices, such as the cost of supplements for hand luggage or the need to reserve adjacent seats to travel with dependents or minors. Ryanair, the main one highlighted, but not the only one. We tell you the details.
The airlines low cost They have been relying for some time on measures such as charging for hand luggage or the sale of seats to cushion their low price policy in the sale of plane tickets. A set of measures that have always been involved in a certain controversy, due to the lack of knowledge that existed around their legality, especially when particular situations occurred. Like, for example, when we found ourselves having to pay to reserve adjacent seats to accompany dependent people or minors.
Now, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has decided to take action on the matter and has announced a sanction of 179 million euros to Ryanair, Vueling, EasyJet, Volotea and Norwegian for abusive practices.
Ryanair, the main one
The sanction bigger it has been for Ryanairwith just over 107 million euros, followed by Vueling, with 39 million; Easyjet, with 29 million more; Norwegian, with just over one and a half million, and Volotea with a fine that exceeds one million euros, according to ministry sources.
The most important thing about the sanction is not only its amount, but also the prohibition to continue with the practices for which they have been sanctioned. A situation that could represent an important paradigm shift with the situation that passengers have had to experience in recent years and that could lead to changes in the pricing policies of those already mentioned.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has classified these practices as very serious and has also served to dismiss the appeals filed by these companies months ago, following the proposal of sanctions issued by the General Secretariat of Consumer Affairs and Gaming. Despite this, companies still have a maximum period of two months to file a contentious-administrative appeal. Otherwise, the order will be effective.
The punished practices
The practices that have been considered abusive have been the payment of the supplement for the transportation of hand luggage in cabin, as well as the extra cost of the ticket price for the seat reservation contiguous persons in the case of minors or dependent persons. In addition, the prohibition of facilitating cash payment at Spanish airports has also been sanctioned.
The disproportionate and abusive tax on passengers for printing the boarding card, The omission of information and the lack of clarity in the conditions on the website have been other behaviors that have motivated this sanctioning regime.
To calculate the total amount of the penalty, and guarantee its deterrent effect, Consumption has made the calculation using the criterion of illicit benefit obtained. That is, it has calculated the fine taking into account the benefits obtained by these practices by the airlines.
