Brussels’ Flemish Court for Enterprises ordered early in September Air France and KLM Airlines to stop enforcing the "no show" terms, on pain of 2,500 euros fine per day, L'Echo reported on Thursday.
The said "no show" clause concerns extra charge that is requested from passengers of certain airlines who have not used part of their combined flight. If a passenger wishing to fly from Brussels to Barcelona does not show for the outbound flight, some airlines believe that their flight is lost to them. If the passenger, therefore, wants to still take the return flight, some companies claim an extra charge.
By launching its injunction, a year ago, Test-Achats considered this practice as "unreasonable and unfair".
The consumer advocacy organization went against Air France-KLM because these companies’ provisional clauses include particularly high penalties ranging between 125 and 3,000 euros.
In its ruling, the court has mainly focused on the clarity and understanding of the terms of the clause. For the judge, the clause does not indicate clearly that the passenger of a series of flights may continue his journey even if he did not use one or more flights of the series in question. It is also not clearly indicated that the passenger may only take the remaining flights if he pays extra charge.
The Brussels Times
