Pablo Bustinduy’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs has fined five airlines (Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet, Norwegian and Volotea) 179 million euros for abusive practices, such as charging extra for hand luggage or to reserve adjacent seats for accompanying passengers. .
The highest fine is that of Ryanair with 107,775,777 euros, followed by Vueling with 39,264,412 euros; Easyjet, with 29,094,441; Norwegian, with 1,610,001 euros, and Volotea with 1,189,000 euros, according to ministry sources.
This is the first time that sanctions qualified as very serious have been implemented by the General Administration of the State in the field of consumption, whose ministry acquired sanctioning powers in June 2022. The sanctions also include the express ban on continuing the practices that have been sanctioned.
Concretely, they demand the payment of a supplement for the carriage of hand luggage in the cabin, a supplement on the price of the ticket for the reservation of adjacent seats in the case of minors and dependent persons and their companions and for not allowing no cash payment at Spanish airports.
Bustinduy spoke about the sanction in a message on his X account, in which he assured that the “commitment” of Consumption is “clear”: “There cannot be economic models based on the violation of rights”.
Also for imposing disproportionate and abusive fees on passengers for printing the boarding pass, omissions of misleading information and a lack of clarity in prices published both on its own website and on third parties, making it difficult the comparison of price offers to consumers and their decision-making.
In the case of the airline Ryanair, a practice is also sanctioned whereby users are charged a disproportionate amount for printing the ticket in the terminal when they do not have it.
Consumer Affairs explains that to guarantee the proportionality and effectiveness of the sanctions imposed, as well as their dissuasive effect, the calculation of the sanctions was carried out according to the criterion of the illicit benefit obtained, that is to say by calculating the fine in depending on the benefits obtained. by airlines for infringing practices,
As established by the consumer sanction regime for practices classified as very serious, the sanctions imposed could reach up to six to eight times the illicit profit obtained when it exceeds the amounts of the fines provided for (between 100,001 and 1,000 000 euros).
With the order signed by Pablo Bustinduy, the sanctions proposed months ago by the General Secretariat of Consumption and Gaming are confirmed and, therefore, the appeals filed by these companies are rejected.
Companies can file a contentious-administrative appeal before the Administrative Disputes Chamber of the National Court within two months. After this period, if the companies have not appealed to the court, the order will be effective.
