I think a losing defendant usually has to pay the claimant’s (reasonable) legal costs. Certainly in the Small Claims process in UK that is how it works.
I am also not greatly in favour of punitive penalties to airlines. There is a fundamental unfairness from the carrier’s perspective that a passenger can pay £5.99 for a ticket and then if the flight is >3 hours late, they can claim €250 or even €400 if it’s >1500 km.
[quote quote=873970]I think a losing defendant usually has to pay the claimant’s (reasonable) legal costs. Certainly in the Small Claims process in UK that is how it works.
I am also not greatly in favour of punitive penalties to airlines. There is a fundamental unfairness from the carrier’s perspective that a passenger can pay £5.99 for a ticket and then if the flight is >3 hours late, they can claim €250 or even €400 if it’s >1500 km.[/quote]
It does not usually work that way in the Small Claims track (costs are not awarded, save for under certain, narrow, circumstances|).
EC261 contains an element of punitive penalties by design, to try to influence airlines to behave reasonably – as IanfromHKG points out, the airlines behave cynically in denying statutory rights. In his case (as an experienced lawyer)he is able to apply skill and expertise that the man in the street cannot bring to bear.
Well the inconvenience to the traveller is the same whether you pay £5.99 or £599. And the airline has the choice to increase that to say £6.99 and insure themselves.
If airlines had not treated customers like garbage EC261 would not have been necessary.
