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;         

Update on IFTTA News

• German Court challenges EU Regulation on security standards for passports and travel documents; 
• UK: airlines to include debit card surcharges in headline prices;
• Canada: Transportation Agency decides in flight cancellation and overbooking cases; 
• Germany: lugagge to be carried on a later flight is no legitimate reason to deny boarding; 
• Denmark: passengers of a cancelled flight entitled to rerouting at the earliest opportunity; 
• New Body Scanners at Scottish Airports; 
• Netherlands: new reference for ECJ preliminary ruling regarding air passenger rights; 
• German Supreme Court: no compensation for flight cancellation caused by strike; 
• EU Economic and Social Committee publishes opinion on passenger rights in all transport modes; 
• Egypt: new tourism minister appointed; 
• IFTTA Law Review 2-2012 available online; 
• USA: DOT fines companies for violating Consumer Protection and Price Advertising Rules; 
• UK: Bad Taste Tweets Not Criminal; 
• USA: Airlines lose appeal against DOT fare rules;
• EU Commission publishes consumer tips for visitors to the 2012 Olympic Games; 
• UK and Unfair Contract Terms Reforms; 
• CJEU: inclusion of flight cancellation insurance as a default setting unlawful when selling air tickets over the internet;
• UK: British Airways to check passengers on Google?; 
• Austria: regulation on proper rail passenger behaviour; 
• USA: new law to require airlines to seat families together?; 
•  Scottish Jurisdiction over Shetland; 
• Austria: Appelate court decides on "fly all or pay up" clauses; 
• Spain: Court of Appeal of Barcelona regards Ryanair's boarding pass printing policy lawful; 

New on IFTTA News

• USA: DHS report says X-ray scanners at airports are safe;
  
• ECJ Advocate General: air ticket pricing rules regarding ‘optional price supplements’ also apply to a cancellation insurance;
  
• USA: Appelate court affirms foreign nationals' standing to challenge a "no-fly list" inclusion;
  
• European Union: Parliamentary Transport and Tourism Committee calls for improved air passenger rights;
  
• ECJ to hear cases challenging its "Sturgeon" judgement;
  
• European Union: Public consultation of stakeholders on the "European Charter for Sustainable and Responsible Tourism";
  
• European Court of Justice: insolvency protection also applies in case of a package organiser’s fraudulent conduct;
  
• "Reviews you can trust" - UK Advertising Standards Authority finds TripAdvisor ads misleading;
  
• USA: Appelate court confirms limitation of liability clauses in airline's "Conditions of Carriage";
  
• Germany: new reference for ECJ preliminary ruling regarding Reg. 261/2004;
  
• EU Transport Commissioner receives commitment from Cruise industry to fully engage in review of passenger ship safety rules;
  
• Canada: body height is not a disability;
  
• UNESCO: cruise ships should steer clear of Venice lagoon;
  

Most recent postings on IFTTA News

• USA: airlines ask DOT for another delay in new rules;
• USA: no private right of action pursuant to Air Carrier Access Act;
• UNESCO recognizes Aceh’s Saman Dance as Intangible World Heritage
• Scotland: Human Trafficking Report;
• EU: Commission requests Italy to comply with new safety rules for passenger ships;
• Taiwan: Hong Kong Dragon Airlines accused of discrimination;
• European Commission updates airline black list;
• New EU-US agreement on PNR;
• USA: DOT fines Spirit Airlines for deceptive price advertising;
• European Union: new rules on the use of security scanners at European airports;
• European Union: new Directive on Consumer Rights published in Official Journal;
• IFTTA Europe Workshop Website Online;
• Cruise conference - May 21-23, 2012;
• UK: OFT takes next procedural step in airline fuel surcharges case;
• USA: DOT issues first fine for tarmac delay rule violations;
• India: tiger reserves may ban tourists;
• Court of Cassation (FR) on Deep vein thrombosis;
• UNWTO: European tourism grows above expectations;
• European Consumer Centre Network launches Air Passengers Rights Report 2011;
• USA: DOT fines Caribbean Airlines for improperly limiting reimbursements for delayed baggage;

News from the IFTTA website

• EU: towards stricter enforcement of passenger rights
• European Travel Law Forum andf IFTTA Europe Workshop 2011 in Salzburg/Austria/EU
• UK: Bribery Act 2011
• Class action on violation of EU Reg. 261/2004 filed in Illinois court
• Age rating for packages
• USA: Washington D.C. to sue OTAs for unpaid taxes
• USA: race discrimination claim preempted by Warsaw 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.

UK: Equality Act 2010

90% of the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 October. This is a consolidating piece of legislation. The nine pieces of legislation being brought together under the Act are:
• Equal Pay Act 1970
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003
• Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
• Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006
• Equality Act 2006
• Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007
Among the changes to the law introduced on 1 October include:
• Making pay secrecy clauses unenforceable. This will protect employees who choose to discuss their pay with each other for the purposes of uncovering discrimination. This is particularly helpful for those seeking to ensure that employers are not discriminating in pay and conditions between male and female employees.
• Extra protection for disabled people. The new law restricts the circumstances in which employers can ask job applicants questions about disability or health prior to offering them a position. This gives disabled applicants greater protection from employers that unfairly screen out disabled applicants.
• New powers for employment tribunals. Where an employer has discriminated against an employee, the tribunal will be allowed to make recommendations that could affect the whole workforce - for example, calling for harassment policies to be more effectively implemented - instead of being restricted to measures that will benefit the employee who brought the action.
• Employers have a responsibility to protect their staff, where possible, from harassment by customers.

UK: airlines fail to comply with EU passenger compensation rules

The UK Air Transport Users Council (AUC), set up and funded by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to help protect the interests of air travellers, says that airlines are repeatedly failing to meet their obligations under European Union law to aid passengers affected by delays and cancellations. Between April and June, AUC received more than 7,500 complaints from travelers, many of them resulting from carriers refusing to compensate accommodation costs for passengers stranded during the volcanic ash crisis.

Source: AUC press release>>.

UK. Airline Catering Staff. Working Time Regulations

Gallagher v Alpha Catering Services Ltd (Trading as Alpha Flight Services) [2005] ICR 673

Catering services employees were required to spend “downtime” at airports while waiting for aircraft to be serviced. The place that they were required to wait in only had basic facilities such as a toilet. They might be required to service an aircraft at any moment. This downtime was therefore held not to be a “rest-break” for the purposes of the Working Time Regulations 1998. The company could not claim retrospectively that they had had a 20 minute break if they had not been required to service an aircraft during that time.

UK. Car Hire. Distance Selling

Easycar (UK) Ltd. V OFT (C 336/03) [2005] All ER (EC) 835

E provided car hire services in the UK and other Member States. Customers could book the services on the Internet. E’s terms and conditions only permitted cancellations by consumers in very exceptional circumstances. The Office of Fair Trading brought the action on grounds that E was not complying with the provisions of Article 6 of the Distance Selling Directive which permits a cooling-off period.

The ECJ held that car-hire was a form of transport service and therefore exempt under the provisions of Article 3(2) of the Directive. Providing a car-hire service was the provision to consumers with a means of access to transport.

UK. Airline - Religious Discrimination

Eweida v BA PLC [2009] ICR 303

BA’s uniform policy prohibited the visible wearing of jewellery or personal items unless the wearing of the item was scripturally mandated and could not be concealed under the uniform. Even in the case of this exception, permission from management was required. E, a practising Christian, was sent home after she insisted on wearing a plain silver cross over her uniform. She remained off work for 4 weeks. She was not paid during that period. BA then changed its policy and permitted staff to display a faith or charity symbol with their uniform, provided that they first obtained management’s permission.

E appealed against a tribunal’s decision that BA’s previous policy did not put Christians at a particular disadvantage compared to other persons. The EAT dismissed the appeal. The protection afforded those with a religious or philosophical belief was broad. That belief might be intensively personal and subjective. It was not a legal requirement that that belief is shared by others or mandated y an established religion. A provision may amount to indirect discrimination of it adversely affected a group, even if they complied with it. The strongly held view amongst some staff that they should be allowed to openly wear jewellery was not confined to those who held a religious beliefs. The law required E to establish that the provision disadvantaged a particular group. She had not established that there were others who, though they complied with BA’s policy, objected to having to do so on religious grounds.

UK. Disabled Persons Rights to Access Aircraft

Civil Aviation (Access to Air Travel for Disabled Persons and Persons with Reduced Mobility) Regulations 2007

These set out offences and penalties for non-compliance with EC Regulation 1107/2006 concerning the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air. The CAA is responsible for enforcement. Complaints are dealt with by the CEHR and the General Consumer Council for Northern Ireland.

The Disability Discrimination Act applies to airport facilities and boarding facilities but not to services provided in board an aircraft. The aim of the EC Regulation is to prevent airlines from refusing to carry persons on grounds of their disability or reduced mobility. It requires the provision of assistance, free of charge, which meets their needs. It applies to airports, travel agents, tour operators and airlines. It also covers people with reduced mobility because of their age, reduced mental capacity or illness.

It requires airport managing bodies to make provision for disabled persons and those with reduced mobility to enable them to pass through airports, board, disembark and transit. It guarantees assistance from a designated point of arrival at the airport to the aircraft and from the aircraft on arrival at the destination to a designated point at the exit to the terminal. This must be provided free of charge to the passenger but the airport may recover the cost from airlines proportionate to the total number of passengers that airline carries. Airlines must provide free assistance on board the aircraft. The only exemption is where there are well-founded safety reasons.

UK: Equality Act

Equality Act 2006

This Act established the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) and sets out its purpose, functions and powers. It takes over the functions and powers of the Commission for Racial Equality, Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission. It is responsible for promoting equality and combating unlawful discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, religion or belief, or age. It acquired the existing provisions in respect of sex, race and disability from the CRE, EOC and DRA. It is also responsible for promoting human rights, except in respect of matters falling within the competence of the Scottish Parliament as Scotland has its own Scottish Human Rights Commission.

The Act makes it unlawful to discriminate, on grounds of religion or belief, in the provision of goods and services, education, the use and disposal of premises and the exercise of public functions. Public authorities have a duty to promote equality of opportunity for men and women and prohibit sex discrimination and harassment in the exercise of public functions.

UK: Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Constitutional Reform Act 2005

This Act created the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and abolished the appellate function of the House of Lords. It also established the Judicial Appointments Commission for the appointment of judges and members of certain tribunals in England and Wales. It provides a disciplinary framework for the English and Welsh judiciary. The judicial function of the Lord Chancellor was also abolished.

It created a Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Ombudsman and provides a mechanism for the removal of judicial appointments holders in Northern Ireland.

The Lord Chief Justice acquired the additional titles of President of the Courts of England and Wales and Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales. The new offices of Heads and Deputy Heads of Criminal Justice and of Family Justice respectively were established.

The Supreme Court has a President, Deputy President and 12 judges appointed by the Queen. The number of judges can be increased by Order in Council. The title of the judges is Justice of the Supreme Court. The Act contains provisions to ensure that the three jurisdictions of England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are properly represented on the court. The Lord Chancellor, First Minister of Scotland, First Secretary in Wales and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland are all consulted on appointments to the court.

The Supreme Court acquired the powers of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in relation to devolution issues under the Scotland Act 1998, Wales Act 1998 and the Northern Ireland Act 1998.

It hears appeals on criminal and civil matters from the courts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and on civil matters only from the Scottish courts. When hearing a case from Scotland it sits as a Scottish court and the case is determined according to the Law of Scotland.

The Supreme Courts of England and Wales were renamed the Superior Courts of England and Wales and the Supreme Court of Adjudicature of Northern Ireland became the Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland.

UK: law suit over flight bans caused by volcanic ash?

EasyJet reportedly is planning to bring a class action lawsuit to win compensation for flight bans imposed by Europe’s air safety authorities. Most of Europe’s airspace was closed for nearly a week from April 15 after a huge ash cloud from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull stranded millions of passengers and paralysed freight and businesses.

Source: Times online; find article here>>.

UK: injunction against BA strikes overturned

A court of appeals overturned an injunction against strikes planned by British Airways’ cabin crew, and walkouts will occur unless the two sides reach an agreement. A first block of strike dates (May 18 to 22) was stopped by the injunction, but a walkout is likely to happen during the second block (May 24 to 28).

BA advises customers to check its website "on a regular basis" to see if their flight is still operating. If their flight has been canceled, customers should not come to the airport but contact British Airways or their travel agent, said the airline.

Source: Travel Weekly; find article here>>.

Google to compete against travel agencies?

Google is moving into the area of the travel agency by adding live hotel rates to its popular maps service in order to appeal to business travellers using Google to research their trip. Research from Travelport says that 54% of British business travellers use the internet to research their trips. Most British business travellers use Google or another search engine (51%), followed by the hotel website (40%), the airline website (35%) and general travel sites such as TripAdvisor (28%).

Source: Times Online; read article here>>.

UK: consultation on creating new consumer right

Altough Consumers are protected from traders' misrepresentations and unfair dealing by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, which implement EU law, they cannot take direct action under these Regulations. The Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission are therefore reviewing whether or not consumers should be able to take direct action against retailers who treat them unfairly. It has asked consumers and businesses if the action would be too severe.

Source: out-law.com; find article here>>.

Dubai: appeals court upheld prison sentence for tourist couple

A Dubai appeals court upheld a one-month prison sentence for a British couple convicted of kissing in a restaurant. The tourists landed in court upon complaint of an Emirati woman. Though they insisted the "kiss" was just a peck on the cheek, they were arrested in November and convicted of inappropriate behavior and illegal drinking.

Source: eTurboNews; find article here>>.

UK lawmakers: privacy fears over body scanners overblown

The privacy fears raised by the deployment of full body scanners at airports are overblown, a committee of British lawmakers said Wednesday, adding that the technology was no more of a threat to passengers' rights than pat-downs or bag searches.

The government promised to install body scanners across Britain's airports after a botched attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound jet on Dec. 25 — allegedly by a terrorist who hid explosives in his underwear.But privacy groups bristled at the prospect of scans that can peer under clothes to reveal hidden items, likening them to a "virtual strip search."

The report welcomed the introduction of the scanners and recommended that other security measures be adopted quickly, including new equipment to sniff out trace levels of explosives.

Source: Los Angeles Times; find article here>>.