The Frankfurt district court has overturned clauses of the airline Ryanair, with which passengers should be prevented from assigning their compensation claims to Internet portals.
The court found various points to be unlawful, which unreasonably disadvantaged consumers.
The customer must be able to decide for himself whether he should pursue his claims himself or transfer them to third parties after delays or flight cancellations.
According to the judgment, Ryanair had secured long processing times in the terms and conditions, only wanted to accept an assignment of rights to natural persons and also only make payments directly to the passengers. All clauses violated the Passenger Rights Ordinance, however, found the Frankfurt judges. Ryanair must accept that for customers, the route via passenger rights portals is often the simpler and less complicated way of enforcing their demands. Nor could the company rely on Irish law with a complex clause.
The ruling was won by the Frankfurt Competition Center, which had already reached a similar, now legally binding ruling against the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air at the Berlin Regional Court.
The Frankfurt decision (Az. 2-03 O 527/19), however, is not yet legally binding.
A spokesman for the headquarters announced that he would go to the Federal Court of Justice if necessary.