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International Travel Law News
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| United Kingdom: Increased Passenger Tax faces legal challenge
Airlines and travel companies are preparing to launch a legal challenge to the British government’s imposition of air passenger duty, a tax on flight tickets. The tax was doubled by the finance minister, Chancellor Gordon Brown, in a statement in December and the increase came into effect last week.
The rise in the tax caused chaos at check-in desks on February 1, as it applied to tickets already bought by passengers before the chancellor’s announcement, and had not been taken into account by the airlines at the time. Some passengers who had already bought long-haul tickets were required to pay an additional £40 (US$80) in extra tax when they arrived at check-in desks last Thursday.
Opponents of the air passenger duty say it amounts to retrospective tax and could be ruled illegal in a court. They also argue that as the increase had not been debated and passed by Parliament in a finance bill, it has no legal status anyway and passengers are not obliged to pay it. A third argument is that the air passenger duty is a tax on airlines, not on individual tax payers, and airlines are only passing on the cost to passengers in a fare increase rather than paying it out of company profits.
Source: travelwirenews.com/David Browne. Read the full article here: http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000109/010906.htm
07 February 2007 Posted By Michael Wukoschitz
|  European Union: Commisson's information on air passenger rights incorrect
The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has called on the European Commission to correct inaccurate and misleading information contained in leaflets, posters and a video presentation on air passenger rights. This follows a complaint to the Ombudsman from two airline associations. They criticised the information provided by the Commission on the rights of travellers to compensation and assistance in the event of denied boarding, cancellation of flights or long delays. Although the Ombudsman did not find all the complainants’ allegations to be justified, he identified certain inaccurate and misleading statements in the information material and asked the Commission to correct them. One of the statements in the leaflets and posters reads: "If you are denied boarding or your flight is cancelled, the airline operating your flight must offer you financial compensation and assistance". The Ombudsman considers that this sentence wrongly suggests that compensation has to be paid in every case where a flight is cancelled.
The Ombudsman also agrees with the complainants that a statement in the video that "Immediate and automatic compensation will be paid for delays, cancellations and overbooking" is inaccurate as compensation never has to be paid in respect of delay, and where compensation is payable for cancellation and overbooking, it does not have to be paid immediately.
The Ombudsman accepts that the information material provided by the Commission could not be expected to be complete, but considers that the information given must be accurate. The Ombudsman therefore asks the Commission to correct as soon as possible the inaccurate and misleading statements identified in his inquiry.
Source: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/release/en/2007-01-10.htm
12 January 2007 Posted By Michael Wukoschitz
|  Germany: Restrictive clauses on conveyance of certain goods in checked air baggage invalid
German Supreme Court (BGH) found two clauses invalid whereby an airline tried to interdict conveyance of breakable or perishable goods, computers and other electronic devices, jewellery, valuables, cash money, business papers and commercial samples in checked baggage and to restrict its liabilty to intent or gross negligence, even if goods were carried in knowledge of the airline.
BGH found these clauses inconsistent with the mandatory rules of Art. 17 of the Montreal
Convention and therefore invalid (BGH 05.12.2006, X ZR 165/03).
15 December 2006 Posted By Michael Wukoschitz
| European Union: Court of Justice Finds Distribution of a Signal by Means of TV Sets by a Hotel to itsCustomers Protected by Copyright
The SGAE (the body responsible for the management of intellectual property rights in Spain) took the view that the use of television sets and the playing of ambient music within the hotel owned by Rafael Hotels SA involved communication to the public of works belonging to the repertoire which it manages. Considering that those acts gave rise to breach of copyright, SGAE brought an action before the Spanish courts. The Audiencia Provincial (Provincial Court) of Barcelona referred the matter to the Court of Justice.
In the decision of 7th Dec. 2006 (Case C-306/05), the Court pointed out, that the concept of ‘communication to the public’ had to be interpreted broadly in order to achieve the principal objective of the directive, that is to establish a high level of protection in favour, amongst others, of authors, allowing them to obtain an appropriate reward for the use of their works, in particular when these were communicated to the public.
It was necessary to take into account the fact that, usually, hotel customers quickly succeed each other. As a general rule, a fairly large number of persons are involved, so that they may be considered to be a public, having regard to the principal objective of the directive.
Therefore, if, by means of television sets thus installed, the hotel distributed the signal to customers staying in its rooms or present in any other area of the hotel, a communication to the public took place, irrespective of the technique used to transmit the signal. The private or public nature of the place where the communication takes place was immaterial.
Source: ECJ Press Release 95/06, http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp06/aff/cp060095en.pdf
13 December 2006 Posted By Michael Wukoschitz
| Switzerland: joins European Aviation Safety Agency
Switzerland today officially became a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency. It is the fourth non-EU country to adopt European Union aviation safety legislation after Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Patrick Goudou, Executive Director of the Agency, said: “I welcome Switzerland’s membership. It is an important step towards a more integrated safety system in Europe and underlines the key role of the Agency in this system”.
The four non-EU countries are represented in the Agency’s Management Board and nationals of these countries are eligible to work for the Agency.
Source: EASA-Press release 2006-11-30.
01 December 2006 Posted By Michael Wukoschitz
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