The consumers’ association Testaankoop is taking legal action against the Irish airline Ryanair. Testaankoop accuses Ryanair of numerous breaches of consumer protection legislation. Previously, the consumers’ association has lodged complaints against Ryanair with the Economic Inspectorate several times. Now Testaankoop is going a step further and is taking legal action against the airline.
Around a year ago, Testaankoop lodged a complaint with the Economic Inspectorate against the budget airlines Ryanair, Vueling, Wizzair and EasyJet as they charge passengers that take lager items of hand luggage on board the plane with them. As other airlines don’t charge for hand luggage up to 8kg, this makes it difficult is to compare prices for flights offered by the budget airlines with those of other airlines. Customers only see at the end of the reservation process how much they will be actually expected to pay. This is in breach of EU rules that state that the full price should be made clear from the outset.
Ryanair goes even further than this an lets unsuspecting customers pay for extra services that they don’t really need. Here you don’t only pay for so-called “larger hand luggage”, but also for “priority embarkment” and to choose your seat.
As it believes that Ryanair is the worst offender when it comes to these kinds of practices, Testaankoop has decided to take legal action against the Irish airline.
"What we want is, as defined under European law, that the price is made clear to the customer from the start of the booking process, including charges for individual services. This will make it easier to make a comparison between the various airlines”, Testaankoop’s spokeswoman told journalists.