Recent news items on the IFTTA website

• UNWTO: international tourist arrivals up 4.5 percent in the first four months of 2011
• UK: Office of Fair Trading Provides New Guidance on Competition Law
• DOT Fines Ticket Agents for Violations of Code-Share Disclosure and Price Advertising Rules
• European Court of Justice: Advocate General Sharpston delivers opinion on important air passenger rights issues
• Thailand withdraws from World Heritage Convention
• USA: Texas lawmakers want to ban invasive pat-downs at airports
• European Travel Law Forum + IFTTA workshop starting
• USA: Airlines sue DOT over consumer protection rules
• European Air Passenger Departure taxes detrimental to Kenya tourism?

IFTTA news update

• EU Commission publishes responses received on the ADR consultation including IFTTA paper
• Canada: no suspension of Warsaw Convention limitation period because of a plaintiff’s disability
• AIA: conference on ADR in the Aviation Sector and the sector of Tour Operators
• ECJ: advertising of entry-level prices for travel and tourist services admissible
• Survey on the attitudes of Europeans towards tourism 2011
• Switzerland: voters approve "suicide tourism"
• Air Zimbabwe suspended by IATA
• Canada: air carrier not liable for delay caused by mechanical problem
• European Court of Justice: air carrier must reasonably take account of the risk of delay and provide for a certain reserve time
• England and Wales: Legal Professional Privilege
• USA: DOT issues new passenger rights regulation
• EU: Commission updates list of air carriers subject to an operating ban
• Austria: reference for ECJ preliminary ruling with regard to Brussels I-Regulation
• German court asks ECJ: can a discontinued flight be regarded as delayed pursuant to Reg. 261/2004?
• Austria: court denies compensation for missed connecting flight

IFTTA Europe Workshop, Salzburg July 2, 2011

This year's workshop is connected to the European Travel Law Forum (June 30 - July 1, Salzburg). The focus of the Workshop will be on 'The review of the EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation 261/2004. The issues to be discussed in this regard will be prepared by a working group.

Find the programmes of both events as well as the according registration forms on the IFTTA website here>>.

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

More news items at IFTTA website

• USA: Oklahoma's lawsuit against online travel companies dismissed
• Germany: Montreal liabilty limit for lost baggage applies per passenger regardless of number of checked pieces of baggage
• UNWTO: tourism a vehicle for gender equality
• Egypt: Minister of Tourism initiates new tourism campaign
• Ireland: Eyjafjallajökull eruption referred to the ECJ
• Finland: new reference for ECJ preliminary ruling regarding Reg. 261/2004 and "denied boarding"
• Austria: Supreme Court refers Pammer case back to court of first instance
• Mexico: President Calderon signs National Agenda for Tourism

Recent news postings on the IFTTA website

• WEF Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011 ranks Switzerland No 1
• China imposes tourist ban on Tibet
• USA: new Regulations on Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Public Accommodations to come into force
• Austria: discounts for elderly people in public transport must not apply from different ages for men and women
• Local authorization for Cruize stop off in island is denied by the Municipality on Carnival days.
• USA: no unjust enrichment through limited validity of airline gift cards
• France: new Transport Code
• Scottish Contract Law Reform: Rules of Interpretation
• IATA publishes 2010 Aviation Safety Performance report - lowest accident rate in history
• USA: local tolling rules do not apply to the limitation period of the Montreal Convention
• USA: Delta fined for non-compliance with Air Travelers with Disabilities Rules
• European Court of Justice: opinion on penalizing airport noise
• Germany: no liability for copyright infringements by hotel guests through WLAN
• Germany: yet another reference for preliminary ruling with regard to Reg. 261/2004
• USA: third attempt to introduce Air Passenger Bill of Rights
• Hotel must pay R$ 280,000,00 to man who lost his wife in crash (Brazil)
• EU Directive on Consumer Rights

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.

IFTTA News Blog relocated to IFTTA Website

This news blog is continued at http://www.iftta.org/news. You can now find news on legislation, judgements, events, etc. relevant for travel and tourism law together with a lot more interesting material directly at our new IFTTA website.

See you there!

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.

Seats On Boeing Spaceships Could Go Up For Sale

By JOSHUA FREED, AP Business Writer Joshua Freed, AP Business Writer – Wed Sep 15, 5:44 pm ET

MINNEAPOLIS – Boeing and a space tourism company announced a deal on Wednesday to sell tickets on rocket rides to the International Space Station. Now Boeing just has to build a spaceship.

Space Adventures Ltd. has already been selling seats aboard the Russian-built Soyuz spaceship. Its last passenger was Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who paid $35 million for a 10-day trip.

Now, Boeing says Space Adventures will sell seats on its planned CST-100, which would carry seven people. NASA has been encouraging aerospace companies like Boeing to develop spaceships that can carry government-sponsored astronauts as well as paying tourists to the space station. The idea is to spread around the cost of NASA missions while also boosting privately funded space efforts.

Big questions remain. Congressional funding isn't assured. And Boeing and Space Adventures will have competition from a California company called SpaceX, which is also seeking NASA work for space station missions.

So far, seven customers have ridden on eight flights through Spacecraft Adventures.

The trips will be for millionaires, at least for now. Boeing and Space Adventures executives didn't have pricing details, but said on a conference call that prices would be "competitive" with the cost for a flight on the Soyuz craft.

The more people fly to space, the sooner the cost will come down, said Eric Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures. He said people ask him when it will cost, say, $40,000, or $4,000, instead of close to $40 million.

"I don't know," he said, "but I know that it'll never be $40,000, or $4,000, if it doesn't start off at $40 million. ... We'll get there. Until launch technology radically changes, the price is still going to be quite expensive."

Boeing's CST-100 is a reusable capsule with a round bottom and pointed top that, from the outside, bears some resemblance to the Apollo capsules launched beginning in the 1960s. Boeing is doing design and testing work now, and hopes to have the craft ready in 2015.

Boeing plans to build two at first, which would be used for testing and then refurbished for missions. Each spaceship would need about six months in between flights to have its heat shield restored and its systems tested, said John Elbon, vice president and program manager for Boeing Commercial Crew Transportation Systems.

"Together we can open space to more people, and expand a new market, and I find that terribly exciting," said Brewster Shaw, a former astronaut and vice president and general manager of Boeing's Space Exploration division.

Anderson, of Space Adventures, said he's aiming to reduce the months of training that precede flights on the Soyuz craft, which includes Russian language training that won't be needed on the U.S.-led flights. He said shorter training will encourage more people to sign up, while still being sufficient to get them ready for the flight.

He objected to the notion that the people who accompany government-sponsored astronauts are "tourists."

"It's not the case that a bunch of people show up to the station in their flowered T-shirts with sunglasses on," he said. "I think this is much more about private citizens who are opening the frontier alongside government space explorers, and are doing so in a very serious fashion with lots of serious work behind it."

Still, the Cirque du Soleil founder wore a red clown nose on his trip.

Boeing Co. shares fell 3 cents to close at $62.73.

Original "Source" Article can be found here.

Australia: compensation for inhaling smoke from pyrolysed oil in cabin of aircraft

The New South Wales Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by East-West Airlines against a flight attendant who inhaled smoke in an aircraft cabin 18 years ago and had developed a persistent cough. The New South Wales Dust Diseases Tribunal had previously found that due to the smoke from pyrolysed oil she was exposed to dust, which caused her to develop her cough and awarded the flight attendant $139,000.

East West Airlines Ltd v. Turner [2010] NSWCA 53; BC201001873 - 01 Apr 2010 - Supreme Court of New South Wales, Court of Appeal.

Judgement available here>>.

Germany: reference for preliminary ruling of the ECJ with regard to Reg. 261/2004

A German court (Amtsgericht Köln) has recently filed a reference for preliminary ruling with regard to the follwoing question:

Does Article 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 295/91 ( 1 ) apply to a passenger with a confirmed reservation for an outward and a return flight who does not present herself for boarding for the return flight owing to the following circumstances:

• The operating air carrier denied the passenger, who had presented herself punctually for boarding for the outward flight, boarding against her will and announced its intention of denying her boarding on the return flight.

• Boarding was denied because of the operating air carrier’s mistaken assumption that, because of a chargeback, it was entitled to a processing fee, which the passenger had not yet paid?

Case C-226/10 - Hannelore Adams v. Germanwings GmbH

Source: Official Journal of the European Union C 209/15

Austria: new Supreme Court decision on loss of holiday enjoyment

A couple booked a package holiday arrangement for their honeymoon in Egypt at EUR 1.448. Back home they complained about improper performance and assigned their claims to a consumer protection association (Verein für Konsumenteninformation - VKI) which sued for a price reduction of EUR 1.320,90 and compensation for loss of holiday enjoyment of EUR 560 (deducting a refund of EUR 141 by the tour operator).

First instance court (Bezirksgericht für Handelssachen Wien) granted additional EUR 150,60 comprising of a price reduction of 5 % for a defect air condition, 5 % for construction noise and another 10 % for an insufficient beach space (contrary to promises in the brochure) but dismissed the claim for compensation for loss of holiday enjoyment.

Appelate court (Commercial Court Vienna - Handelsgericht Wien) doubled the price reduction by granting additional 5 % for bad water quality of the pool, 5 % for ponding the room when flowers were watered and another 10 % for noise during the night. However, appelate court upheld dismissal of the claim for compensation for loss of holiday enjoyment: the shortcomings had not exceeded the threshold of relevance.

Upon further appeal by the plaintiff, Supreme Court in judgement 2 Ob 45/10x of June 17, 2010 emphasized the different legal nature and purpose of price reduction on the one hand and compensation for loss of holiday enjoyment on the other. Following a previous decision, Supreme Court decided in favour of a rather low threshold of relevance and granted the claim for compensation for loss of holiday enjoyment. However, Supreme Court disagreed with the view that the threshold of relevance with regard to loss of holiday enjoyment should be equated with any shortcoming more than negligible under warranty law.

The total grant thus amounted to EUR 1.002,20. Supreme Court noted that the price reduction granted by the appelate court (which was not subject of his decison) was "very generous" in favour of the claimants.

Note:
1) Even given this generous grant, the consumer protection association only succeeded with roughly 58 % of the claim - which proves a tendency of the assocoation to sue for excessive amounts.
2) The fact that it was a honeymoon trip was not decisive.

Full text of judgement 2 Ob 45/10x of June 17, 2010 available in German here>>.

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>>.

Thailand to review regulations to attract more tourists

Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij announced that Thailand is willing to review regulations in the tourism sector to give more access to foreign investors and professionals in a move to attract more visitors.

Find full article here>>.

ISO: Focus on Travel

The July/August 2010 issue of ISO Focus+, the magazine of the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO), features some of the key standards that facilitate travel covering issues such as safety and security of travellers (machine readable passports, visas and travel documents , biometrics); travel and tourism signboards ; the proposed new ISO standard for adventure tourism (activity conducted by the ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC228Tourism and Related Services ),other areas such as quality management (ISO 9001:2008 certification), ISO standards regarding energy and water, food and beverages, air filtration and HVAC systems, furniture, cosmetics and their implementation in the accommodation sector . But, there are also two other ISO standards in relation with the protection of consumers which are mentioned in this ISO Focus+ Issue (particularly with the reference to the consequences of the Icelandic volcano crisis and future similar crisis). These are respectively the ISO 31000 : 2009 Risk Management Standard and the ISO 26000: 2010 Guidance on Social Responsibility Standard ( including the consumer affairs).

Information passed on to IFTTA by Patrice Tedjini, UNWTO.

Find further details here>>.

USA begins to collect entry fees on travellers from Visa Waiver countries

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will begin collecting fees on travellers from Visa Waiver countries beginning Sept. 8, 2010. Travellers will be charged a USD 10 fee when applying for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). A portion of the fee will go toward funding the Corporation for Travel Promotion, created by the 2009 Travel Promotion Act. Customs and Border Protection, the DHS unit that is overseeing the process, also established a USD 4 cost-recovery fee for the ESTA program, meaning the total to visitors will be USD 14.

Currently, travelers from Visa Waiver countries are required to log on to a secure U.S. government ESTA website, enter their passport information and expected itinerary, and wait for an electronic authorization, which is good for multiple entries for two years.

Source: Travel Weekly; find article here>>.

New York: new hotel tax targets online agencies

Online travel agencies and other hotel resellers will have to start paying higher taxes in New York from September. The legislation defines remarketers as anyone who "reserves, arranges for, conveys or furnishes occupancy, whether directly or indirectly, to an occupant for rent in an amount determined by the room remarketer" and requires all hotel room resellers to pay the 4% state sales tax on the retail rate, not just the wholesale rate.

Source: Travel Weekly; find article here>>.

Europe: tour guides in clash with tour operators over proposed ID-badge

The Federation of European Tourist Guide Associations (FEG) is outraged over European Tour Operator Association’s (ETOA) decision to produce its own pan-European ID-badge for anyone who guides tourists. According to ETOA, the main objective of this proposed pan-European ID scheme, is to support the freedom of those who deliver cultural commentary to tourists in public places. FEG, however, qualifies the move as an attempt to circumvent the need for area-specific professional qualification.

FEG press release available here>>.

Canada: class action against Air Canada over price disclosure

A motion filed on July 16, 2010 by Union des consommateurs du Québec against Air Canada (proposing that the action cover all residents of the province of Québec who have purchased tickets directly from Air Canada since June 30), alleges that Air Canada failed to disclose the complete price of its tickets in its paper and electronic advertisements as well as on its website.; in particular additional charges such as airport improvement fees and 9/11 security charges were added to the advertised prices.

The motion claims for reimbursement of all fees and charges paid beyond the advertised price and the payment of $100 in punitive damages for each affected consumer.

Source: Union des consommateurs du Québec (French)