Italy - Online Flight Reservations: Antitrust - Deceitful to Exclude Credit Card Commissions from Publicized Ticket Prices

Fines for Alitalia, Blu Express, Germanwings and Air Italy. Lack of clarity in ticket-price presentation and promotion. Commissions for plastic payments left out until the final phase of the booking process. Fines totalling 285 thousand euros. Three other European companies under scrutiny.

It is improper to advertise ticket prices that exclude the added cost of credit card commissions (which can be considerable), only to tack them on at the very end of the booking process. This Antitrust Authority ruling resulted in 285 thousand euros of fines being imposed on Alitalia, Blu Express, Germanwings and Air Italy. The findings have also prompted closer Antitrust scrutiny of three other European companies.

Several distinct inquiries were concluded separately after being prompted by numerous complaints from individual consumers and related associations. The Authority challenged the companies in question on the grounds of insufficient clarity regarding effective prices for ticket offers being promoted through the online booking system, in newspapers and elsewhere on the Internet. More specifically, the Authority found the "credit card supplements" for web-based credit card purchases to be inappropriate, as defined in the Consumer Code and Community legislation, due to their separate application in the near or complete absence of any explanation.Several distinct inquiries were concluded separately after being prompted by numerous complaints from individual consumers and related associations. The Authority challenged the companies in question on the grounds of insufficient clarity regarding effective prices for ticket offers being promoted through the online booking system, in newspapers and elsewhere on the Internet. More specifically, the Authority found the "credit card supplements" for web-based credit card purchases to be inappropriate, as defined in the Consumer Code and Community legislation, due to their separate application in the near or complete absence of any explanation.

These additional fees were not tacked on until the precise moment when consumers indicated the type of credit card they were using during the final phase of the Internet booking process, resulting in significantly higher ticket prices than those advertised or presented within carrier-defined offers.

The inquiries also determined that each of these companies had been inflating the supplements beyond the actual expenses incurred for using credit card circuits (e.g., Visa, Mastercard, etc.), representing an additional source of business profits.

The Antitrust Authority also found Alitalia and Germanwings' decisions to publish English-only versions of their fare conditions and general transport terms (which consumers must accept to finalize a transaction) to be inappropriate.

Fines were calibrated to the size of each operator and the extent and seriousness of the disputed practices: 80k for Alitalia, 75k euros for Blu Express, 55k for Air Italy and 35k for Germanwings. For the English-only fare conditions and general transport terms, Alitalia and Germanwings were fined an additional 25k and 15k euros (respectively)".