*Please note that this is a press release for the Danish press and the content is accordingly

The Supreme Court's acquittal of Ryanair means unclear rights for air travellers

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of airline Ryanair in a case regarding reimbursement of airline tickets. According to Refundmore, this means that air travellers' rights are still unclear and uncertain.

When a married couple had a trip to Rome cancelled in April 2020, they believed they were entitled to refund for the cancelled tickets from the airline Ryanair - even though they had purchased the tickets through the ticket broker flybillet.dk. 

But today, four years later, the Supreme Court has just ruled the opposite, namely that the passengers had accepted that flybillet.dk could receive payment from Ryanair on their behalf. Benedikte Bolvig Lund, lawyer and legal counsel at Refundmore, who has argued the case on behalf of the couple in all three instances, explains why: 

"We had hoped that the Supreme Court would provide some guidelines for all air travellers. Instead, the Supreme Court has only considered this case and the specific behaviour of these passengers. This means we cannot use the judgement for much in other cases. It's a shame, because we would have liked to have had some insight from the Supreme Court into where the balance between the interests of air passengers on the one hand and airlines on the other lies when it comes to ticket intermediaries," says Benedikte Bolvig Lund. 

Today, the majority of air travellers buy their flight tickets through an online ticket broker such as flybillet.dk. Something Refundmore advises against doing - partly because it can be a difficult process to get the money back that you are rightfully entitled to. 

"Ticket agents are not covered by the same EU consumer protection regulation that airlines are. So in order to get your money from the ticket agent, you would have to take legal action against the ticket agent in their home country according to the rules of that country, through that country's courts and in that country's language. In other words, it's an almost impossible task. As an air traveller, you really need to be careful about what you have accepted in terms and conditions on the websites of airlines and ticket brokers," says Benedikte Bolvig Lund. 

With the Supreme Court ruling, Benedikte Bolvig Lund predicts that airlines will continue to try to shift the payment obligation to the ticket agent and thus the risk to the air passenger if something goes wrong. 

According to Gustav Thybo, CEO of Refundmore, this is a big step in the wrong direction for passenger rights and will mean that Refundmore must now also prepare to pursue different cases in courts around the world. 

"To continue to help passengers get their money back, we may have to start suing ticket agents with new types of companies and new legal disputes. We are looking at a future where this will become more difficult and many will miss out on money they are otherwise entitled to. What if the airlines simply say that they have paid the refund to the ticket agent, and then the consumer is at their mercy," says Gustav Thybo. 

Refundmore, together with its parent company Flightright, has cases against airlines courts across Europe and at the European Court of Justice.