General Terms and Conditions and Cancellation Policy

of Flightright GmbH

(as per 1 August 2024)

 

 

Legal Notice: 

The website refundmore.com is owned by the Danish company, Flyhjælp ApS, CVR no. DK-36 91 74 90. Flyhjælp ApS in an authorized debt-collection agency. Flyhjælp ApS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flightright GmbH, HRB 249849, Revaler Straße 28, 10245 Berlin, Germany (hereinafter referred to as ‘Flightright’, or ‘we’). All services that you order via this website are provided by Flightright and Flightright will be your contractual partner.  

 

Therefore, the following general terms and conditions of Flightright shall apply to all such services: 

 

​1. Subject matter of the Contract, Flightright Services

 

1.1

Flightright shall take over the exclusively performance-based enforcement of any claims for compensation (where applicable also further claims) against airlines that you may be entitled to under the EU’s Air Passenger Rights Regulation No. 261/2004 or the British Air Passenger Rights and Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Claim’) in accordance with the following provisions. 

 

For the purpose of enforcing your Claim, after we have agreed to take over the enforcement of your claims for compensation, you shall either irrevocably assign your Claim to us, which authorises us to enforce the Claim (hereinafter referred to as ‘Assignment Process’) or authorise us to enforce the Claim in and under your name (hereinafter referred to as ‘Authorisation Process’). 

 

1.2

Flightright shall seek to enforce the Claim against the airline out of court and shall obtain the relevant information required for this purpose (including information from the airline).

 

1.3

If Flightright’s endeavours to enforce the Claim are insufficient we may engage a contract lawyer to enforce the Claim (cf. para. 6). We shall bear the costs for the activities of the contract attorney engaged by us if our efforts are unsuccessful (cf. para. 6.4).

 

1.4

The presentation of the services provided by Flightright on our website www.flightright.de (or other Flightright pages, including www.refundmore.com[BBL1] ), particularly the compensation calculator, shall not constitute a binding offer for the conclusion of a contract.

 

2. Conclusion of Contract, Specifications

2.1

You are engaging our services after having gone through the compensation calculator on our website (hereinafter referred to as ‘Order Process’). By clicking on the corresponding order button, you are submitting a binding offer for the conclusion of a remunerated representation agreement pertaining to the enforcement of the Claim, including any incidental claims. We accept your offer either via our explicit declaration (e.g. by email) or via the enforcement of the compensation claim against the airline.

 

2.2

The data requested in the Order Process shall be submitted fully and correctly and shall be amended without delay if the data provided change after registration or if you notice that you have submitted incorrect data. This applies in particular to the data you provide with respect to your flight details, address, phone number and e-mail address.

 

3. Fees

3.1

You shall pay fees to Flightright according to our Price List (hereinafter referred to as ‘Fees’) including statutory VAT. A prerequisite for the accrual and maturity of the Fee is that the Claim is successfully enforced.

 

3.2

The amount of the Fees shall be determined by whether the involvement of our contract lawyers is necessary to enforce the claim. If we succeed in enforcing your claim without involving our contract lawyers, we will charge you a lower fee. Only if our out-of-court enforcement efforts have been completely or partially unsuccessful, we will involve our contract lawyers. Please refer to the Price List below.

 

The calculation of the Fees is based on all payments made by the airline after Flightright has sent its payment request, with the exception of any accrued interest on default on the claim, which is owed in full to Flightright. If, with your consent, the claim is settled in kind rather than in cash (e.g. flight vouchers), unless agreed otherwise, we shall be entitled to a corresponding commission in cash based on the value of the payment in kind. We shall also be entitled to Fees once the airline has made payments to you (e.g. in the form of a cheque).

 

 

3.3

Should Flightright only enforce a part of the demanded Claim, we will calculate the Fees based only on the percentage of the Claim enforced by us. The same shall apply in the event of a settlement with the airline pursuant to para. 7.

 

3.4

Should our endeavours be unsuccessful, you will not be charged any Fees. This also applies if contract lawyers have been engaged to enforce the Claim. Should you have engaged a contract lawyer after agreement with us, or if we have engaged a contract lawyer on your behalf, we shall exempt you from such lawyer’s fees in accordance with para. 6.4.

 

3.5

In the event of premature termination of the contract, Flightright's (success-based) claim for compensation shall remain in effect, cf. para. 9.3.

 

3.6

Consumers often do not pursue air passenger rights at all, because the cost-benefit ratio seems unfavorable to them. We solve this problem by providing our services completely free of charge if a claim is not enforceable. In order to offer our clients relief from the risks of unsuccessful enforcement in an economically viable manner, we must cover our costs through our contingency fee in successful cases.

 

In order to successfully provide our services, we rely on a large number of specialized employees, for example for internal case processing, for communication with our customers and the airlines, for developing and maintaining the necessary IT infrastructure, and for conducting model litigation. In addition, there are the personnel costs for the traditional corporate departments (HR and finance, legal, marketing) as well as the costs for rent and materials.

 

Another factor that is taken into account when calculating the amount and terms of our success-based fee is the litigation costs we incur. If, for example, we lose a court case, we bear not only the court costs and our own attorney's fees, but also the attorney's fees of the opposing party and any expert witness fees. If we enforce claims abroad, we often have to bear the court and attorney's fees even if the proceedings are successful.

 

In cases that we enforce out of court, there is often no claim against the airline for reimbursement of our costs. In addition, we bear the risk that a titled claim for reimbursement of costs against airlines is practically unenforceable (e.g., due to insolvency of an airline, fruitless or lack of economically viable enforcement options).

 

3.7

Pursuant to Section 13e of the German Law on Legal Services (RDG), you may claim compensation from your debtor for the costs we charge you for performing our services up to the amount of the remuneration to which a lawyer would be entitled for this work in accordance with the provisions of the German Law on the Remuneration of Lawyers (Rechtsanwaltsvergütungsgesetz).

 

 

 

 

4. Accounting, Payment

4.1

We are entitled to deduct the remuneration owed to us by you, including VAT and any interest accrued on the claim, directly from the payments received by us. 

 

We will hold the amount attributable to you in one of our escrow accounts. We are entitled to enter into interest agreements with the banks managing the escrow accounts and to collect any resulting interest claims on our business accounts. The amount of the interest agreements varies depending on market conditions. The annual interest rate is currently calculated from the European Central Bank Deposit Facility rate minus 1.50 percentage points (Deposit Facility - 1.50 % p.a.). The Deposit Facility is the interest rate set by the European Central Bank for short-term deposits from commercial banks. This rate is variable, set by the ECB at regular intervals, and published on their website www.ecb.eu. As of the month-end closing on 31.05.2024, the interest rate for balances in the escrow account was 2.5 % p.a. Based on a claim of EUR 600.00, this rate results in an interest claim of EUR 0.58 over a two-week period. 

 

For efficiency and consistency, you hereby waive the calculation and release of the interest claims attributable to your claim. Therefore, these interest claims are not to be released to you, deviating from the legal norm (§ 667 BGB in conjunction with § 675 BGB (German Civil Code). 

 

If a Contract Lawyer was engaged in the Authorisation Process, the Contract Lawyer shall pay the enforced amounts to Flightright to enable us to prepare the respective accounts.

 

4.2

As soon as we have received all the documents required for billing, we will properly settle the account with you and pay the amount owed to you. 

 

4.3

You must provide us with an account to which we can transfer the money. If we offer alternative payment methods (e.g., PayPal), you may provide the relevant information instead of the account details. In case you do not have a SEPA account, any fees incurred for the transfer or payment will be borne by you. 

 

If you receive payments from us that are (also) intended for other persons (e.g., fellow travellers), you must forward these amounts proportionally to the entitled persons. 

 

5. Duties and Obligations

5.1

You shall assist us in performing our contractual duties. On request, you shall notify us of all underlying facts to the best of your knowledge. You shall provide us with the documents/data (in particular boarding passes, other flight records and correspondence with the airline) required for processing your case and forward any new information to us promptly and without further request. You shall be responsible for the completeness and correctness of the documents/information provided. You undertake to provide us promptly with any supplementary information if requested.

 

5.2

You are obliged to notify us promptly if you (and/or fellow travellers registered by you) receive any payments from the airline or if the airline has contacted you.

 

5.3

Before engaging the services of Flightright, you have not disposed of the Claim in any other manner, nor have you engaged a third party to enforce this Claim. For the duration of this contract pertaining to the enforcement of your Claim, you may not independently engage other service providers, lawyers or private or public agencies (e.g. SÖP, the arbitration board for public passenger transport) to act in your interest, take legal action or dispose of the Claim.

 

5.4

In the context of the Authorisation Process, you are also not permitted to assign or pledge the Claim you engaged us to enforce to third parties without our consent.

 

6. Engagement of Contract Lawyers, Fee Exemption Commitment

6.1

In general, as a legal service provider, we are not permitted to represent you in competent civil courts. Should our out-of-court endeavours to enforce your Claim (including enforcement court proceedings) fail either entirely or partially, we may engage a contract lawyer or debt-collection agency (“the Contract Lawyer”) in the context of the Assignment Process to enforce the Claim in our name and at our expense risk, if there are good chances of success (i.e. if our efforts are unsuccessful, we shall bear the responsibility of all costs).

 

6.2

In the context of the Authorisation Process (and to the extent permitted by the applicable local law), we may instruct our Contract Lawyer on your behalf to enforce the Claim outside of court and in accordance with the power of attorney which you will have signed. We may also instruct that you engage our Contract Lawyer yourself if the conditions under para. 6.1 apply. Should you engage our Contract Lawyer yourself, a separate agreement shall be concluded between you and our Contract Lawyer

.

You shall authorise the Contract Lawyer to accept declarations on your behalf that have been issued by Flightright in connection with this contract. Flightright undertakes to exempt you from the fees of the Contract Lawyer engaged by you and/or Flightright for you pursuant to para. 6.4.

 

6.3

Your completing of the Order Process permits us to give the Contract Lawyer access to the relevant documents/information. You also undertake to directly answer any further questions the Contract Lawyer may have with regard to the facts of the matter.

 

6.4

Should the enforcement of the Claim fail even after the engagement of a Contract Lawyer and after out-of-court and, where applicable, in-court enforcement of the Claim, we shall exempt you from the fees associated with the engagement of the Contract Lawyer. We shall also assume any other costs associated with the legal action (including court costs, the fees of the opponent’s lawyer and any additional costs arising at international places of jurisdiction) if such costs are not assumed by the airline.

 

7. In- and Out-of-Court Settlements

7.1

The conclusion of settlement agreements requires your consent.  You may also grant Flightright and the Contract Lawyer, the authority to conclude settlement agreements. In this case, settlements concluded in the context of this authorisation do not require any further consent. However, you can still revoke the settlement if it has not fully exhausted the scope of authorisation. In this case, we will review our options for enforcing your Claim and then contact you to coordinate further action. In any case, we shall be entitled to reject a settlement without consulting you if the airline offers you less than 80% of the compensation or refund amount or only offers vouchers instead of cash.

 

7.2

If a contract lawyer was engaged in the context of the Authorisation Process, you are not entitled to conclude an irrevocable settlement agreement, withdraw from a settlement agreement concluded with our consent, waive the Claim, withdraw from the legal action, or dispose of the Claim in any other manner without our prior written consent.

 

7.3

In the case of an (in-court or out-of-court) settlement, the lawyer’s fees and, where applicable, the court costs shall be deducted from the agreed settlement amount unless they have been assumed by the airline (as is common practice). The settlement agreement shall not affect our Fee. In this respect, the provisions under para. 3 shall apply.

 

8. Consumers’ Cancellation Right and Cancellation Policy

If you are a consumer as defined by section 13 BGB (German Civil Code), i.e. a natural person who enters into legal transactions for purposes that are, in their majority, not part of your main commercial or self-employed business activities, you have a statutory right of cancellation with regard to which Flightright has adopted the following policy:

Cancellation Policy

Cancellation right

You may withdraw from this contract within 14 days without stating any reasons. The cancellation period amounts to 14 days starting on the date the contract was concluded (pursuant to para. 2.1), at the latest after you have received this cancellation policy. In order to exercise your cancellation right, you must notify us at the following address:   Flightright GmbH Revaler Str. 28 10245 Berlin Tel.: +49 (0) 331 9816 9040 Fax.: +49 (0) 330 2898 281 09 E-Mail: service@flightright.de   via an unambiguous declaration (e.g. letter sent by post, fax or e-mail including your case number) of your decision to withdraw from this contract. You may, but are not obliged to, use the enclosed cancellation form (see below). You will be deemed to have complied with the cancellation period if your notice of cancellation has been sent off before the expiry of the period.

Consequences of cancellation

If you withdraw from this contract, we are obliged to promptly return to you all payments we have received from you, including payment costs (with the exception of the additional costs that arise from the fact that you have chosen a different method of payment than the most cost-effective standard payment method offered by us) within 14 days of the date on which we have received your notice of cancellation of this contract. We shall use the same means of payment to make this repayment that you used in the original transaction, unless we have concluded an express agreement specifying a different means; we shall not charge any fees for such repayment under any circumstances. If you had requested our services to commence during the cancellation period, you shall pay Flightright an appropriate amount in compensation. Such amount shall be consistent with the share of the services provided until the date on which you notified us that you are exercising your right to cancel this contract in relation to the total services specified in the contract.

Note:

Your cancellation right shall expire early if we have provided the full service and our provision of the service commenced after your express consent and you had confirmed before the provision of the service that you were aware of the fact that you would lose your cancellation right in the case of full performance of the contract. Should you wish to withdraw from the contract, you may complete the form below:   Cancellation form Attn. of: Flightright GmbH Revaler Str. 28 10245 Berlin Tel.: +49 (0) 331 9816 9040 Fax.: +49 (0) 330 2898 281 09 E-Mail: service@flightright.de   I/we hereby withdraw from the contract I/we have concluded with respect to the provision of the following service: ●      Case ID: ●      Date of order: ●      Name of consumer(s): ●      Signature of consumer(s): ●      Date:       We shall promptly confirm receipt of your cancellation notice.

 

9. Term of the Contract, Termination

9.1

The contract concluded between you and Flightright shall expire once the Claim has been settled or if Flightright considers recovery unpromising after due assessment and has notified you of this fact.

 

9.2

In addition, the contract may be terminated by either party at any time. In particular, we reserve the right to terminate the contract in cases whereby you have violated the duties and obligations specified under para. 5.

 

9.3

Should you terminate the contract after engaging Flightright and after the Claim has been sent to the airline, our entitlement to Fees pursuant to para. 4 remains valid.

 

9.4

The European Commission hosts a web-based platform for the resolution of online disputes; however, we prefer to resolve any problems directly with you and do not participate in consumer arbitration proceedings. In such cases, please contact us directly at: service@flightright.co.uk

 

9.5

There are the other options for enforcing the claim: the European Small Claims Procedure (not Denmark), the online form of the German Federal Aviation Authority, the conciliation body for air traffic at the Federal Office of Justice, an inquiry directly to the respective airline, and the offer of the Schlichtungsstelle für den öffentlichen Personenverkehr e. V. (conciliation body for public passenger transport). A list of national enforcement bodies can be found here.

 

10. Final provisions

10.1

The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies. If you submitted your order as a consumer and had your habitual residence in another country at the time of submitting the order, the mandatory legal provisions of this country also apply.

 

10.2

If you are a businessperson whose head office is located in Germany at the time of your order, the exclusive place of jurisdiction is our head office in Berlin. In all other respects, the applicable statutory provisions apply to local and international jurisdiction.

 

10.3

There are no verbal ancillary agreements. Deviating or supplemental individual contractual provisions to these Terms and Conditions must be in written form to be effective. This shall also apply for a waiver of the written form clause.

 

10.4

If one of the terms of these Terms and Conditions is or becomes ineffective, this shall not affect the effectiveness of the rest of the Terms and Conditions. An effective and practicable term shall replace the ineffective or impracticable term, the effects of which come as close as possible to the commercial aim the contractual parties had pursued with the ineffective or impracticable term. The same shall apply in the event of a loophole.