District Court’s ruling on fine on Corendon for displaying prices incorrectly
Ruling on appeal
On June 22, 2017, the District Court of Rotterdam ruled on appeal in the case against tour operator Corendon International Travel B.V. The court has disallowed the appeal filed by Corendon, and, as such, has upheld ACM’s fining decision.
Decision
In 2016, ACM imposed two fines, totaling EUR 350,000, on Corendon for incorrectly displaying prices of tour packages and individual airline tickets.
Additional costs
In its oversight of the travel sector, ACM’s starting point is that all fixed unavoidable costs must be included in the advertised price from the start. All variable, unavoidable costs must be listed directly with the advertised price. These cannot be displayed at the bottom of the page or hidden away in the small print. One such example of variable costs is charging additional costs per booking, while the price of the trip is calculated per person.
For the tour packages and individual airline tickets it sold, Corendon charged additional, variable, unavoidable costs without displaying these clearly and directly with the price from the start. With regard to the tour packages, this concerned the booking costs (EUR 25 per booking) and the fee for the Emergency Fund for Travelers (EUR 2.50 per booking). With regard to the individual airline tickets, it was about the service fee of EUR 3 per booking.
Corendon has six weeks to file an appeal with the Dutch Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (CBb) against the District Court’s ruling.