Who a airline ticket or wants to book an organized trip to Thailand, for example, is still being misled by opaque prices or prohibited surcharges.
De Authority for Consumers & Markets (formerly the NMa) is therefore going to take firm action now that it appears that travel and holiday providers do not comply with the law. Travel companies that flout the rules can face a fine of up to € 450.000 per violation.
Misleading prices in the travel industry
With an information campaign starting today, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) wants to point out to consumers that they can report offenders. In collaboration with ConsuWijzer, travelers become informed about what is and what is not allowed when it comes to stating prices in the travel industry. ConsuWijzer.nl introduces the Travel price checker, a tool to add up all (additional) costs of a trip.
ACM requires the travel industry to show prices of travel and airline tickets including all unavoidable costs and that consumers can opt-in for additional services themselves. An example of these fixed additional costs are booking costs, service/reservation costs, administration costs, airport tax and fuel surcharge.
In addition, the trip or accommodation must be bookable for the price in the advertisement. These rules already apply, but are still too often circumvented by travel providers.
Rules of the game clear prices
To facilitate the application of clear prices in the travel industry, the Authority for Consumers and Markets has summarized the rules in five points:
- The price in the advertisement is the price that can be booked.
- All unavoidable costs are included in the advertising price.
- All variable unavoidable costs are listed directly with the advertising price.
- Optional elements are clearly stated with their costs at the beginning of the booking process.
- Optional elements are not pre-checked.
At the start of the booking process, it must be clear to the consumer what the total price of the booking is, including all unavoidable costs. The variable unavoidable costs are also immediately clearly stated in the advertising price. Other additional costs are only added if the consumer chooses additional services and ticks them himself. These charges must be clearly stated at the start of the booking. In this way, the consumer can immediately determine the total amount and will not be surprised by extra costs that will be added later in the booking process.
When will REALLY intervene here, other than every year in mid-spring? This has been going on for years and every year they intervene…. they say….
Even KLM is guilty of it; when booking an additional 10 euros will be added. Why not just include this directly in the price? Other providers make it even more colorful; For example, at BudgetAir you pay “airline reservation fee” and “flight booking costs”. I will miss the nuance, but freely translated they both mean the same thing?? Then just charge a booking fee of 30 euros… Because a reservation fee of 17,50 and a booking fee of 12,50 are exactly the same. Or do they want to give the impression that they themselves have less of it?
Fortunately, there is also good news to report: At Skyscanner.nl you DO get to see the correct price, although after a referral to BudgetAir, for example, you first arrive at a lower price and after the “booking costs” and “reservation fee” have been added. it is indeed the amount shown earlier.
Remarkable, by the way, that when I went directly to the BudgetAir site, the price was 8 euros higher than when I came to the site via Skyscanner.nl…
Since I prefer to book directly with the airline, I ended up booking with Finnair for the same price. And there you can simply pay with ideal without extra costs. How easy!
It's really time to do something about this and hopefully in the short term, but a fine
of 450.000 per violation is, in my opinion, a mistake by the editors, it is
45.000 euros per violation and that is the maximum.
Dear Piet, please mention a source if you claim something. This is my source: http://goo.gl/EzB4p
Read the last line of the press release:
ACM will actively focus on this in the coming period. Companies that do not comply with the rules can be fined up to EUR 450.000 per violation.
I can also inform you that recently Ryanair was fined € 370.000. Source: http://goo.gl/V6tne
I also hope that they will take care of the additional assessment of the fire surcharge, almost every year you will receive an email later after a booking that you have to pay a little extra for the fuel that has gone up, I don't think it's normal
Isn't it the case that if the full amount due is paid immediately upon booking, that additional assessment can no longer be applied?
I'm asking because I have never been charged an additional tax for the fuel surcharge.
The question remains, is this common for all travel organizations, although people book a trip that starts from Belgium or Germany, it is almost impossible to check this.
Especially the last Minutes is messed with.
It is best to have all confirmed in writing in advance to avoid surprises.
The prize fighters sometimes make it very hard, in the past there was even one who wanted money to use the toilet. Paying for your own meals (snacks) is already standard with many of these companies...but this is not communicated when booking