The European Commission's (EC) consumer watchdog has taken back accusations it made against Emirates Airline last month, saying the Dubai carrier properly discloses fare information to customers. "Contrary to some earlier reported indications, Emirates Airline is fully in compliance with all the requirements laid down in EU consumer legislation," said Meglena Kuneva, the director general for health and consumers at the EC.
"I commend Emirates Airline as a non-EU carrier for the observance of community law and for the commitment to maintain these standards and to consumer protection." Emirates was one of 12 airlines the agency had said persistently misled customers over fares on their websites. The airlines, which included Northwest, Aeroflot and Olympic, ignored or failed to respond adequately during an 18-month investigation on misleading fare advertising, the EC said.
After it was publicly named, Emirates contested the report and asked for an apology. It defended itself on the grounds that the EC mailed documents relating to the investigation to an incorrect address in Dubai, and also excluded the airline from the report's consultation process. Although the airline sells tickets on 93 websites in 70 countries, the commission singled out one website in Malta. "Although we were disappointed with how the original investigations were conducted, we are pleased that this is now resolved," said Richard Vaughan, the senior vice president of commercial operations worldwide at Emirates.
"All Emirates' fares include taxes and surcharges and no service fees apply when bookings are made and paid for online. We also provide a breakdown of the fare components both online and with Global Distribution Systems." A total of 137 airline websites were investigated by the EC for deceptive "headline prices" that did not account for hidden extra costs such as taxes, charges and fees. Since then, 115 of the offending websites have promised to comply with the EU rules.
igale@thenational.ae