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The Ministry of Consumption It has initiated the first disciplinary proceedings against various low-cost airlines for charging additional costs for hand luggage carried in the cabin. The ministry, through the Consumption Directorate-General, has expanded the case to include the additional costs incurred for other services traditionally included in the ticket price, such as: B. Reserving a seat next to another passenger in the case of minors or dependents. . Submitted companies include Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet and Volotea.
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Through this practice of removing the services traditionally included in the ticket price and charging the passenger a surcharge for them, these companies offer very competitive prices in their advertising. This allows them a privileged SEO positioning in search engines and comparison portals compared to competitors who include these services in the price of the ticket advertised in the comparison portal.
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However, as a result of these practices, in most cases the price initially offered in the advertisement does not correspond to the price that the consumer ultimately pays.
_a826d51c-6cd3-465f-932e-89344e3e777b.jpg%5C%22 "Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet and Volotea are among the airlines reported by Consumption")
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The airlines do not accept cash payments
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In addition, contrary to the provisions of the regulation, the initiated airlines would not allow cash payments at the airport for ancillary services.
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The penalties provided for these violations can be considered as serious or very serious violations and are punishable by fines ranging from 10,001 to 100,000 euros for serious violations and from 100,001 to 1,000,000 euros for serious violations. very seriously.
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In the event that the unlawful benefit derived from the infringing practices exceeds the stated amounts, the sanctions imposed may range from four to six times the unlawful benefit obtained for serious violations and from six to eight times the unlawful benefit obtained for serious violations, depending on the case of very serious cases.
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The first complaint before the Ministry of Hand Baggage Collection dates back to October 2021 and is specifically aimed at Vueling, although Facua had already reported Ryanair and Wizzair to the State Aviation Safety Agency and the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) in 2018) for this reason, “without either” of the two organizations communicating measures in this regard.
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File from the Balearic Islands to Ryanair
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The consumer organization assures in a statement that in March 2021, following the complaint filed three years ago, the Balearic Islands decided to open disciplinary proceedings against Ryanair for these practices.
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In April 2022, following another complaint, the company opened another complaint against Vueling and later also filed Easyjet and Volotea. This year, however, it decided to archive all of those sanctions files, so according to Facua, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs is the one that issues the fines.
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