EU reprimands airlines for misleading consumers

15 May 2009

Emirates, Turkish, Royal Air Maroc and six other airlines have come in for a sharp reprimand from the European Union for misleading customers through their websites. Aeroflot, Northwest and Olympic also figure in the list of airlines that post misleading advertisements on their websites.

The ''black list'' includes airlines that that feature misleading advertisements and resort to unfair practices and is the result of an 18-month crackdown on 137 airlines websites across 15 EU countries and Norway.

Many of the complaints relate to hidden extra costs that the airlines charge under cover of deceptive ''headline'' prices.

Websites were judged on the basis of a 14-point check list, which asked if all such extra charges including taxes, charges and fees were included, and if extra costs were added as opt-in or opt-out options.

EU consumer protection commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, said that while 115 of the offending websites that were found violating EU rules have said they would fall in line, the nine airlines chose to ignore or failed to respond adequately to the EU's complaints.

She added that it sent the message that they could not care less about their consumers.