The EU Court ruled that airlines are required to refund passengers not only the cost of canceled tickets but also the agency commissions paid to travel agencies in the event of flight cancellations.
This is mandatory even if the carrier does not know the exact amount of this commission, the European Union's (EU) highest court ruled on Thursday.
The EU Court's decision is related to a case in which passengers purchased tickets on the travel agency platform Opodo for a flight from Vienna to Lima with KLM from the Netherlands.
When the flight was canceled, KLM refunded the cost of the airline tickets but did not compensate for about 95 euros that Opodo charged travelers as an agency commission.
The case was examined by the Supreme Court of Austria, which referred it to the EU Court for clarification.
The court stated that it does not matter whether the airline knows the exact amount of the commission. This commission is an unavoidable component of the ticket price and is therefore considered approved by the airline, according to the ruling.
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