Air Passenger Rights. Ten Years On

Summary:

Regulation 261/2004 on Air Passengers' Rights has been amongst the most high-profile pieces of EU secondary legislation of the past years, generating controversial judgments of the Court of Justice, from C-344/04 ex parte IATA to C-402/07 Sturgeon. The Regulation has led to equally challenging decisions across the Member States, ranging from judicial enthusiasm for passenger rights to domestic courts holding that a Regulation could not be relied upon by an individual claimant or even threatening outright to refuse to apply its provisions. The economic stakes are significant for passengers and airlines alike, and despite the European Commission's recent publication of reform proposals, controversies appear far from settled.

At the same time the Regulation should, according to the Treaty, have uniform, direct and general application in all the Member States of the Union. How, then, can this diversity be explained? What implications do the diverging national interpretations have for the EU's regulatory strategy at large? This book brings together leading experts in the field to present a series of case studies from 15 different Member States as well as the extra-territorial application of Regulation 261, combined with high-level analysis from the perspectives of Aviation law and EU law.

Table of Contents:

1. Welcome Aboard: Revisiting Regulation 261/2004
Jeremias Prassl and Michal Bobek

Part I: EU-Level Perspectives
2. Regulation 261: Three Major Issues in the Case Law of the Court of Justice of the EU
Jir í Malenovský
3. Regulation 261: The Passenger Rights Framework
Frank Benyon
4. EU Law and the Montreal Convention of 1999
David McClean
5. Luxembourg v Montreal: Time for The Hague to Intervene
John Balfour
6. EU Regulations in the Member States: Incorporating International Norms
Silvia Ferreri

Part II: Member States' Perspectives
7. Austria and Germany: Well-Informed Passengers, Extensive Case Law and a Strong Demand for Legal Certainty
Irena Gogl-Hassanin
8. The Benelux: Small is not Less
Pablo Mendes de Leon and Wouter Oude Alink
9. Bulgaria: Blurred Lines
Alexander Kornezov
10. A Pair of Wings: Air Passenger Rights in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Kristián Csach
11. Estonia: All Well or is there Something in the Air?
Tatjana Evas and Silvia Ustav
12. France: Air Passengers Facing Long-Haul Judicial Journeys
Fabien Le Bot
13. The Italian Experience and Trend
Laura Pierallini
14. Poland: Do Not Adjust Your Seat, Passengers' Rights are Assured
Krystyna Kowalik-Banczyk
15. Spain: Defeating Air Passengers' Rights Through Procedural Rules
Mireia Artigoti Golobardes
16. United Kingdom and Ireland: Passenger Protection Turns a Corner
Benjamin Jones
17. Extraterritorial Application: Exporting European Consumer Protection Standards
Brian F Havel and John Q Mulligan

Part III: Broader Horizontal Perspectives
18. The Turbulent Life of Regulation 261: Continuing Controversies Surrounding EU Air Passenger Rights
Sacha Garben
19. European Private Law: Up in the Air?
Joasia Luzak
20. Tackling Diversity Through Uniformity? Revisiting the Reform of Regulation 261/2004
Jeremias Prassl
21. Uniform Rights? The Nature of Regulations Revisited
Michal Bobek