Court of Justice: authorities may force airlines to pay compensation

In the Netherlands, for example, this means that the government may decide that the Inspectorate for the Environment and Transport (Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport, ILT), the national enforcer of passenger rights, can rule in compensation cases of individual passengers. This is not the case now.

Under the current system, passengers have to bring legal proceedings against an airline refusing to pay compensation, such as compensation for a delayed flight. The ILT does not handle individual reports, but only takes action when many passengers submit complaints about a particular airline.

Question to the Court of Justice

The Court's ruling concerned the case of a group of passengers whose flight from New York to Budapest (Hungary) with Polish airline LOT was delayed by three hours. Wishing to claim compensation, the passengers went to the Hungarian authority responsible for enforcing the rules. The Hungarian authority ruled that LOT would have to pay these passengers €600 in compensation, but LOT disagreed, claiming that only a Polish court would have the power to force them to pay compensation, not the Hungarian authority. The Hungarian court therefore referred the question to the ECJ.

Ruling

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that national enforcement authorities are not obliged to handle complaints from individual passengers, but that member states may entrust enforcement authorities with that power.

According to the court, European rules on compensation are designed precisely to avoid complex lawsuits and that these rules lay out standard compensation for passenger damage so that passengers, airlines and authorities can easily determine whether any party involved is entitled to compensation. The process can be expedited if a national enforcement authority rules on a request for compensation because it means that:

• Passengers do not have to start legal proceedings
• Passengers are better protected
• Courts have to rule on fewer requests for compensation

The Court therefore finds that national enforcement authorities may be entrusted with the power to rule on compensation claims by individual passengers. If a passenger or airline disagrees with the ruling, they still have the option to bring the matter before the court.

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The full ruling Case C‑597/20 can be found on the Infocuria website (Case law of the EU Court of Justice).