Published16 August 2024, 11:44
Accusation from lawyer: Accusation against airline: Is Easyjet cheating with refunds?
A Geneva lawyer accuses Easyjet of deliberately making it difficult to apply for compensation for flight cancellations.
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A Geneva lawyer criticizes Easyjet for the complicated compensation claims after flight cancellations.
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He suspects that the form is intentionally designed to be so complicated that passengers give up.
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Easyjet emphasizes that they take their responsibility seriously and offer a simple online form.
A Geneva lawyer accuses Easyjet of unfair practices. The airline is said to have deliberately made applications for compensation after flight cancellations so difficult that customers give up filling out the application.
This is what the Geneva lawyer says
In June 2023, lawyer Jean-Cédric Michel’s flight was cancelled. The airline quickly refunded him the cost of the flight. However, he had a hard time getting the compensation provided for in EU regulations, as 20 Minutes reports.
Depending on the length of the trip, compensation amounts to between 250 and 600 euros. It is due in the event of cancellations or delays of more than three hours. On April 11 of this year, he complained to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). For him, it is clear: Easyjet is trying to prevent travelers from demanding compensation.
On the one hand, lawyer Michel notes “an asymmetry between the few clicks required to purchase a ticket”, the two fields – name and booking number – that must be filled in to request a refund and “the 24 fields of the compensation claim form”.
Worse still, Michel suspects that the airline automatically rejects the form several times, even when it is filled out correctly, “so that the passenger becomes discouraged and gives up”. He had to try six times to get the system to accept his application, after it rejected him three times for an allegedly incorrectly filled in IBAN, then once for the BIC number and finally once again for the departure city.
This is what Easyjet says
The lawyer suspected that Easyjet would save a huge amount of money this way. The airline says it “takes its responsibilities under Directive EU261 seriously and will always pay compensation to eligible passengers if they make a claim.”
She absolutely rejects any accusation regarding practices aimed at avoiding compensation payments: “We have a simple, fast and free online form available for customers and encourage them to claim directly in order to receive 100 percent of their claim without any deductions from third parties.”
This is what the Seco says
The Seco responded to lawyer Michel that it would only take action if a collective interest was damaged, i.e. if it was aware of several cases. The lawyer then posted the case on social networks and hoped that more people would complain.
In response to a request from “20 Minutes,” the Seco stated that “if there are around 20 complaints, it can be assumed that collective interests are being affected.” However, it could not say whether it had already taken action on the complaints received.
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