Under EC Regulation 261/2004, passengers can claim financial compensation when a flight is severely delayed or cancelled. Pursuant to Section 16 of this Regulation, the Netherlands is obliged to appoint a national institution that is responsible for the enforcement of this regulation. In the Netherlands, this is the State Secretary for Infrastructure and the Environment, while the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport – ILT) has been charged with the execution.
If a passenger feels that he is entitled to compensation, he or she must submit a request to that end to the airline. However, the airline will pay no such compensation if the delay or cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances. In such case, the passenger can request that the ILT assess whether the airline is right, or the compensation should be paid after all.
So far, the ILT has refused to take enforcement action against airlines in cases in which compensation had to be paid but the relevant airlines refused to do so. This caused a lot of dissatisfaction with a number of passengers, who brought this lack of enforcement before the Council of State.
During these proceedings, the Council of State subsequently asked the Court of Justice in Luxembourg whether – in individual cases – the ILT is obliged to take measures against an airline if it refuses to pay compensation. On this subject, the text of the regulation is general and, according to the Council, does not provide a definitive answer to this. In addition, passengers who want to enforce payment of compensation already have the option of going to civil court.
On 17 March 2016, the Court of Justice found that the duty of the ILT is to carry out general supervision in order to safeguard the rights of airline passengers. This means that the ILT is not obliged to act if an individual complaint against an airline is submitted to it. According to the Court of Luxembourg, national law can grant this authority.
Please find enclosed the judgement of the European Court of Justice of 17 March 2016 (in the consolidated cases C‑145/15 and C‑146/15). The Council of State will handle any cases deferred by it with due observance of this judgement.
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