Pablo BustinduyMinister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda, announced sanctions against five low-cost airlines for the value of almost 179 million euros for carrying out abusive practices that violate consumer rights. Among the sanctioned companies are Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet, Norwegian and Volotea, even if not everyone will pay this historic fine in the same way.
Ryanair will be the one that receives the highest fine, it will assume almost 60% of the sanction, since will have to pay 107,775,777 euros. Behind this is Vueling, which will have to pay 39,264,412 euros; For its part, Easyjet will pay a fine of €29,094,441; Norwegian will have to pay 1,610,001 and Volotea will have to pay 1,189,000.99.
This historic fine imposed on them by Consumption is due to the usual abuses that these companies commit on the consumer, to whom they charge some of their rights extra. Among the practices sanctioned are the invoicing of a supplement for carrying hand luggage in the cabinpay for reserve adjacent seats when traveling with minors and dependentsbanning cash payment at Spanish airports, imposing “disproportionate and abusive” fees for printing travelers’ tickets, as well as for “omissions of misleading information and lack of price clarity”.
The Irish company is also sanctioned for having invoiced an amount ““disproportionate” for printing boarding passes in the terminal, when it is not available.
As Consumo reports, these sanctions were adopted by calculating the profits that airlines obtained by implementing these abusive practices against consumers. These sanctions put an end to an investigation opened by Consumer Affairs in 2023 for practices described as “very serious” violations of consumer regulations.
For their part, the airlines announced that They will appeal the historic sanction that the Government has imposed, it will therefore be Justice which will decide whether this fine is stopped or not.
