A German court has ruled that websites can be fined and owners jailed for publishing so-called “mistake” fares.
The ruling comes out of Bavaria, a more conservative and business-friendly region of the German Republic.
Lufthansa sued a travel website for publishing this headline:
ERROR FARE: Business Class to California with Lufthansa and Co. for only 687 €
Lufthansa had mistakenly filed the fare, which is normally about 5x that price. It argued:
- Publishing mistake fares exacerbates the problem by opening the floodgates to thousands of otherwise clueless participants
- Correcting mistake fares is not an instant process (especially on nights and weekends)
- Error fares bring unfair legal fees and litigation costs to the airline
- Error fares, when not honored, hurt the airline’s public image
The court agreed.
The defendant acts unfairly, because it consciously exploits a recognizable mistake of the plaintiff and thus creates a significant competitive disadvantage for the plaintiff.
While the defendant was only slapped with legal fees in this case, future violations will result in a EUR250,000 fine or six months in prison.
A Narrow Ruling
If there is any solace in this ruling, it is in its narrow scope. From the way I read it, the issue was not publishing the fare itself, but calling it an error fare, thus knowingly exploiting a ticket Lufthansa never intended to offer.
I suspect this website and others can continue to publish potential mistake fares…they simply cannot call them mistake fares.
Just What is a Mistake Fare?
Over and over, I’ve asked just what constitutes a mistake fare? Where is the line? What is the magic number when a good fare becomes a mistake?
I continue to assert that consumers should not have to know this and that airlines should have the same rights as customers: no more and no less. In terms of booking fares in the USA, that means an airline has up to 24 hours to rescind a fare if travel is more than seven days away.
If I accidentally book a non-refundable ticket for travel to Frankfurt tomorrow on Lufthansa and realize it was a mistake, I’m out of luck. There is no mercy. There is no grace. Meanwhile, Lufthansa can wait weeks before cancelling a fare. That is poor public policy.
> Read More: Real or Mistake? Frontier Airlines Slashes Fares by 99%
> Read More: Cheap Qatar Airways Business Class Fare: Mistake or Not?
CONCLUSION
You can read the entire decision here (in German). I do not like the ruling, but at least appreciate its narrow scope. The same website can continue to publicize deals Lufthansa would deem mistake fares. The only prohibition: it cannot call it a mistake fare.
H/T: View from the Wing // image: Guido Radig (CC 3.0)
WOW. My immediate reaction was that that kind of ruling would never happen in the US. Then I caught myself because yeah… it totally could under the guise of “business friendly.”
Although we have traditionally lauded the exploitation of loopholes, it seems the airline industry is immune to this. Interesting indeed.
Hideous airline. To be avoided at all costs, even on cheap ‘mistake’ fares.
Oh come on! You would give LH F a pass?..Try F redemption, you do not need to fall in any error fares trap..
Who would be jailed if jail time were ever enforced in such a case? The editor who approved the post? The person whose byline appeared on it? (I don’t read German very well so apologies if this is addressed in the decision.)
And am I correct that it would still be OK to use the headline “Amazing Fare”? What about “Unbelievable Fare”?
The fare quoted to California certainly falls into what I would consider a gray zone when it comes to error fares. This winter, I flew LH round-trip in business class from the USA to Central Asia for just over that amount (each way). The fare was offered over the course of at least 6-8 weeks, but it was for a fairly obscure open-jaw routing so maybe even LH wasn’t aware of it. Certainly no blogger publicized it. If it had been 100 Euros each way, or some obviously under-priced amount, I’d consider it my risk in purchasing the ticket and hoping it would be honored. But if it’s the equivalent of 60% off which happens all the time in other consumer markets, I agree it’s very difficult to separate promotional capacity-filling from erroneous fare filing.
When posting fares don’t state Error or mistake fare
FARE SALE : 300 bucks ..
Since pricing always changing we can consider it a sale
Yet again boys and girls be aware in how you communicate such mistake or error fares in the future..to the German bloggers..be warned that your jurisdiction has fired a warning shot at you and to rest of the world..you know that Germans love their legal technicalities, so it could take years handling legal battles..