The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a Press Release (No 91/19) on July 10, 2019 regarding: Judgment in Case C-163/18 Press and Information HQ and Others v Aegean Airlines, entitled:
‘Passengers who have the right to hold their tour organiser liable for reimbursement of the cost of their air tickets cannot also claim reimbursement of the cost of those tickets from the air carrier. Such a cumulative right to reimbursement would lead to an unjustified overcompensation of passengers to the detriment of the air carrier’
Within the press release the COJ of the EU states:
‘In today’s judgment, the Court points out that the mere existence of a right to reimbursement, arising under the directive on package travel, is sufficient to rule out the possibility for a passenger, whose flight forms part of a package tour, to be able to claim reimbursement of the cost of his ticket, pursuant to the regulation on passenger rights, from the operating air carrier.
The Court considers that while the EU legislature did not intend to exclude entirely from the scope of the regulation passengers whose flight forms part of a package tour, it did, however, seek to maintain in their regard the effects of the adequate protection scheme which had previously been put in place by the directive on package travel.
It follows that the right to reimbursement of the cost of the ticket, pursuant to the regulation and the directive, are not cumulative. If they were, the passengers concerned would receive unjustified overcompensation, which would be to the detriment of the operating air carrier, which, in that case, would risk having to assume part of the liability of the tour organiser towards its clients.’
The full press release can be viewed here.
