Recent postings on IFTTA News

• German Supreme Court: tour organizer must not reserve alterations of the flying times;
• Austrian Supreme court asks CJEU for interpretion of Reg. 785/2004 and the Montreal Convention;
• Aviation Safety Network: accident fatalities at record low in 2013; 
•  UK: Supreme Court finds refusal of double room to same sex couple discriminatory;
•  U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal in West Caribbean Airways crash case; 
• Austrian Supreme Court: hotelier liable for legionella disease; 
• Canada: Ontario Superior Court of Justice decides on Montreal Convention exclusivity; 
• Australia: Supreme Cout of Queensland decides in 'cramped' air passenger case; 
• U.S. Jurisdiction re Eurail Pass; 
• Article on hotel classification in Ireland; 
• IFTTA Law Review 3-2013 now available online;
• UK: Court of Appeal decides in broken glass door case; 
• Australia to abolish travel agents licensing; 
• CJEU decides on jurisdiction in package travel case; 
• European Court of Human Rights: few hours' detention of airline passenger for airport security checks not excessive ; 
• Conference on latest developments in European Travel Law at ERA in Trier, Dec. 5-6, 2013; 
• CJEU: Including fingerprints in passports is lawful; 
• USA: DOT fines United Airlines USD 1.1 million for lengthy tarmac delays; 
• European Court of Human Rights affirms internet news portal's liability for offensive online comments of its readers about a ferry company; 
• USA: Appelate court decides on angry passenger's Facebook and Twitter posts about an airline employee; 
• Master program in International Tourism Management and Analysis (ITMA); 
• France: Court of Appeal affirms fine for price fixing in the leisure and tourism sector; 
• UK: Court of Appeal clarifies "accident" according to Article 17 of the Montreal Convention;         

Recent news postings on the IFTTA website

• USA: Air France fined for unlawful baggage liability disclaimer
• Canada: Warsaw Convention applied on non-complinace with wheelchair request
• Brazil: Gol Airlines must compensate the victim's sister to crash for R$ 120,000
• USA: court ruling entitles American Airlines to pull its fares from Orbitz
• USA: reasonable standard of care applies on pilot decisions to disembark passengers under Tokyo Convention
• UK: OFT Strategy on Online Shopping - Consumer Protection
• Germany: Prussian foundation entitled to interdict commercial photos and film-shots of its castles and gardens
• Hotelstars Union: Baltic Countries joined
• Europe: Consumer Centres' Network publishes survey on European Ski Resorts
• USA: some websites fail to identify operating carrier
• US Airport search angers Indian diplomat
• Germany: new reference for preliminary ruling with regard to Reg. 261/200
• USA/Brazil: open skies agreement
• France: Continental liable for Concorde crash

Find more at iftta.org.

France: Burqa ban to apply to tourists too

France's government announced it would apply a proposed ban on face-covering Islamic veils to visiting tourists as well as residents, even as skepticism mounted over the legality of the plan. The draft bill will be presented to the cabinet next month. France's highest court has already warned the government that a complete ban could be unlawful.

Source: eTurboNews; read article here>>.

Panic on an Aer Lingus flight to Paris

Passengers on the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Paris began shouting out and crying as they thought their plane was about to ditch. The crew accidentally played out a recorded emergency landing warning in French as the plane headed south over the Irish Sea. Around 70 French passengers were reported to be "freaked out" on hearing the warning. The cabin crew quickly realised their mistake and swiftly apologised in French.

Source: SkyNews; find article here>>.

France: passenger demonstrations following Yemenia crash

In France potential passengers –mostly from the Comores community - are refusing to fly again with Yemen flag carrier, denouncing the poor quality. They ask French authorities to ban the airline from French and even EU skies. It is an unprecedented move against an airline with serious potential consequences for the airline industry: Passengers forcing an airline to out of a market could create a precedent open a new era in the relations between airlines and their customers.

Following demonstrations Yemenia announced to “temporarily” suspend its flights to and from Marseille-Provence airport and finally announced to also suspend its flights from Paris until conditions are improving. Anyway, Yemenia will be forced to dramatically improve its safety.

Source: eTurboNews; find Article here>>.

Air Hostess Picks Up Chocolate Bar, Wins Space Trip

I thought Willy Wonka only gave away tours of the Chocolate Factory - not space...

Wed Jul 16, 11:02 AM ET

PARIS (Reuters) - A French air hostess will become one of Europe's pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere.
Mathilde Epron, 32, said she had bought a Kit Kat chocolate bar at her local supermarket but initially threw the wrapper in the bin, telling herself that "it's only others who win."
Two hours later, thinking back to the competition, she decided to try her luck and fished the wrapper out of the bin, only to find a code marked inside.
"For someone who works in air travel it's really a dream come true," she told France Info radio.A spokeswoman for Nestle in France confirmed that Epron had won the prize to take a flight on a four-seater, fighter-sized aircraft built by Rocketplane, a company that builds aircraft intended to provide cheap flights into space.
She will receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma City in the United States before boarding the Rocketplane XP aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.

France: judge orders US airline to stand trial for Concorde crash

A French judge has ordered Continental Airlines and five individuals to stand trial on charges arising from the crash of an Air France Concorde that killed 113 people in 2000. The defendants include two employees of the U.S. carrier, two employees of Aerospatiale, the company that made the supersonic Concorde, and a French aviation official. All are charged with manslaughter.

The crash in 2000 was a factor in the subsequent decision to remove all Concorde jets from service three years later.

Source: eTurboNews; find article here>>.

European Court of Justice: Costs of disposing of waste from a sinking oil tanker from coastline and beaches to be imposed on producer

The Italian company ENEL concluded a contract with Total International Ltd for the supply of heavy fuel oil from Dunkirk (France) to Milazzo (Italy). To carry out the contract, Total raffinage distribution, now Total France SA, sold the heavy fuel oil to Total International Ltd, which chartered the oil tanker Erika, flying the Maltese flag. On 12 December 1999 the Erika sank off the coast of Brittany (Finistère, France), spilling part of her cargo and oil from her bunkers into the sea and causing pollution of the Atlantic coastline of France.
The municipality of Mesquer brought proceedings against the companies in the Total group for reimbursement of the cost of cleaning and anti-pollution operations on its coastal territory, relying on the Waste Directive. The municipality claimed that the hydrocarbons accidentally spilled at sea constituted waste within the meaning of the directive, so that the companies Total International Ltd and Total France should be liable for the cost of disposal, in their capacity as ‘previous holders’ or ‘producer of the product from which the waste came’ respectively.
The Court considers that the heavy fuel oil carried by the ship is not ‘waste’, as it is exploited or marketed on economically advantageous terms and is capable of actually being used as a fuel without requiring prior processing. However, such hydrocarbons spilled in connection with a shipwreck, mixed with water and sediment and drifting along the coastline of a Member State until being washed up on shore, must be regarded as substances which their holder did not intend to produce and which he discards, albeit involuntarily, while they are being transported, so that they must be classified as waste within the meaning of the directive.
The Court recalls that the Waste Directive provides, in accordance with the ‘polluter pays’ principle, that that cost must be borne by the ‘previous holders’ or the ‘producer of the product from which the waste came’. The shipowner may be regarded as having produced the waste and on that basis be classified as a ‘holder’ within the meaning of the directive. However, the national court may consider that the seller of hydrocarbons and charterer of the ship carrying them has ‘produced’ waste if it finds that the seller-charterer contributed to the risk that the pollution caused by the shipwreck would occur. If, however,the national law of a Member State, including the law derived from international agreements, prevents that cost from being borne by the shipowner and the charterer, even though they are to be regarded as ‘holders’, such a national law will then have to make provision for that cost to be borne by the ‘producer of the product from which the waste came’, if he has contributed by his conduct to the risk that the pollution caused by the shipwreck will occur.

Source: ECJ press realease>>.

European Court of Justice: Advocate General Kokott supports liability of heavy fuel oil producer for disposing of oil waste

In 1999 the tanker Erika shipwrecked off the Brittany coast . The heavy fuel oil spilled in the accident polluted amongst other things beaches in the Commune of Mesquer, which is now claiming damages from undertakings in the Total Group.
In preliminray proceedings regarding interpretation of Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste (‘Waste Framework Directive’) lodged by French Cour de Cassation (Case C-188/07, Mesquer v Total), Advocate General Kokott yesterday published her opinion arrving at the following conclusion:
"The producer of heavy fuel oil and/or the seller and carrier may be ordered under Article 15 of Directive 75/442 to bear the cost of disposing of oil waste following a shipping accident if they can be accused of contributing personally to causing the leak of the heavy fuel oil. However, it is also compatible with that provision to limit the liability of the producer of heavy fuel oil and/or the seller and carrier in accordance with the International Convention of 29 November 1969 on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, as amended by the Protocol of 1992, and the 1971 International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage, as amended by the Protocol of 1992."

Full text of the opinion available here>>.

World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Report Highlights the Importance of Environmental Sustainability

Switzerland, Austria and Germany have the most attractive environments for developing the travel and tourism industry, according to the second annual Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008, released today by the World Economic Forum. Australia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, Canada and France complete the top-10 list. The rankings cover 130 countries around the world.
Improvements have been made to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) this year. The “environmental regulation” pillar has been revised and improved as well as being re-named the “environmental sustainability” pillar to better reflect its components and to capture the increasingly recognized importance of sustainability in the sector’s development.
The TTCI measures the factors and policies that make it attractive to develop the T&T sector in different countries. It is composed of 14 pillars of travel and tourism competitiveness:

1. Policy rules and regulations
2. Environmental sustainability
3. Safety and security
4. Health and hygiene
5. Prioritization of travel and tourism
6. Air transport infrastructure
7. Ground transport infrastructure
8. Tourism infrastructure
9. Information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure
10. Price competitiveness
11. Human capital
12. Affinity for travel & tourism
13. Natural resources
14. Cultural resources

This cross-country analysis of the drivers of competitiveness in travel and tourism provides useful comparative information for making business decisions and additional value to governments wishing to improve their travel and tourism environments.

Source: World Economic Forum; read full press release here.

Note that "Policy rules and regulations" is regarded the first pillar - thus in my opinion emphasising the importance of a legal frame i.e. travel and tourism law.

"VAT: Commission takes steps against 8 Member States as regards the application of the travel agents' scheme"

As just stated by the EU Press Room, "The European Commission has formally requested Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal, France, Italy, Finland, Greece and the Czech Republic to amend their legislation with regard to the application of the special VAT 'margin' scheme for travel agents. The request is in the form of a reasoned opinion which is the second stage of the infringement proceedings provided for in Article 226 of the Treaty. If these Member States fail to comply with the reasoned opinion within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Communities."

This Press Release is available in full text.

"Air pilgrims face holy water ban"

"Pilgrims on the Vatican's new chartered airline have been told to leave holy water behind for security reasons.
Officials at Tarbes-Lourdes airport in southern France said that bottles of water from the shrine at Lourdes could present a potential terrorist threat.
The pilgrims were told they could not carry holy water in bottles bigger than the maximum allowed: 100 ml.
Security staff at the airport said they were simply following international anti-terror regulations.
Measures limiting liquids allowed in carry-on baggage came in response to claims by British police in 2006 that there was a plot to bring down US-bound flights using liquid explosives.
Francesco Pizzo, Mistral Air's president, said the company had to respect international regulations on the matter.
The airline provided a small bottle of holy water, in the shape of the Virgin Mary, for each passenger, once they had boarded the plane for the flight home from Lourdes.
Mistral Air began flights from Rome to Lourdes on Monday and plans to extend its service to other Roman Catholic shrines."

Source: BBC News.

Angola threatens reprisals if EU goes ahead with national airline ban

Angolan government warned it could ban European airlines from Angolan airspace, after the EU blacklisted the African country's flag-carrier. The EU said last week it had added the Angolan airline, TAAG, to its international blacklist, barring it from flying to EU nations because of safety concerns. TAAG operates scheduled flight to Paris and Lisbon, Portugal. Air France, British Airways and TAP Air Portugal all fly to the Angolan capital, Luanda.

Source: International Herald Tribune; read full article here.