2024 saw Ryanair, an airline, score a victory in the Supreme Court of Denmark (Højesteret) in Case BS-48424/2023-HJR. In the judgment, it ruled under the Air Passenger Transport Regulation (Regulation 261/2004) that airlines, when making refunds of bookings that have been made by travel agents on their customers behalf, are entitled to make refunds to the travel agents, and not the passengers.
Background and facts
Ryanair airline tickets had been purchased from a travel agent (an online ticket broker) on behalf of customers who were planing between Billund Airport (Denmark) and Rome Ciampino (Italy) in April 2020. However, the flight was cancelled by the airline, owing to the COVID pandemic.
When the flight was cancelled, the airline wrote an email to one of the passengers stating that they could use a link in the email and enter information about the booking if they wanted a refund of the ticket. In that case, the refund would be made via the form of payment that was used for the original order.
The passenger made use of the refund link, and afterward completing a form via that link, received an auto-generated reply from the airline which stated, inter alia, the refund amount had been paid out via the payment method used for the original order (i.e., to the online ticket broker).
The airline advised that if the customer had used a travel agent, the customer should request to receive the refund amount from that travel agent, if the payment card used was not the customer’s own. The passenger then requested the travel agent to transfer the refund amount.
The passengers then filed a lawsuit, using an intermediary against the airline, about the lawfulness of this practice.
First instance
At the Kolding District Court (Retten i Kolding) in BS-47085/2020-KOL, the first instance court on 21 January 2022 found that the airline had, in fact, transferred the amount to be refunded to the travel agent. The judgment of the Kolding District Court can be read here.
Second instance
On appeal at the Western High Court (Vestre Landsret), that second instance court came to another conclusion on 13 June 2023. The judgment of the Western High Court in Case BS-39145/2022-VLR can be read here.
Final instance
The Supreme Court of Denmark (Højesteret) on 26 March 2024 was of the view that there was insufficient grounds to set aside the assessment of evidence by the first instance court.
In a de facto overturning of the Western High Court judgment, and finding along the same lines as the initial Kolding District Court, the Supreme Court decided that the ‘correct’ person (natural or legal) to whom the airline must make the refund, in this situation, was the travel agent.
The Supreme Court stated that given the passenger filled out the refund form sent to it by the airline, the passenger had accepted that the refund would be made to the travel agent. This relieved the airline of any further obligations.
Read the judgment
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Denmark (Højesteret) in Case BS-48424/2023-HJR can be read here.