Cyriel Ruers and Paul Breithaupt assist the International Air Transport Association (“IATA”) – the global trade association for commercial aviation representing over 300 airlines – as a joined party on the side of an airline in civil proceedings before the Amsterdam Court of Appeals on passenger rights. The proceedings relate to a fundamental dispute over the refund obligation under Regulation 261/2004.
The reason for the proceedings is the bankruptcy of travel agency D-reizen. When a flight is cancelled, the airline refunds the ticket price – according to IATA’s globally used Biling and Settlement Plan (“BSP”) – to the person who booked the tickets. In many cases, this is a travel agency such as D-reizen. When D-reizen went bankrupt, it turned out that large numbers of tickets had long since been refunded by the airline to D-reizen, but the latter failed to pass on the ticket price to the affected passengers. In the current proceedings, a passenger is trying to force the airline to refund the ticket price again directly to the passenger. The airline and IATA take the view that such a double reimbursement obligation does not follow from Regulation 261/2004, which means that the airline is allowed to refund the ticket price to D-reizen, thereby discharging the airline of its payment obligations.
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