BEUC's position on travellers' rights in the COVID-19 context

Consumers across Europe are being hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis, both in health and economic terms. Concretely, many people, faced with different national containment measures, are losing their jobs and incomes and do not know how to pay their bills at the
end of the month.

Although we are aware that the travel, tourism and transport industry has been one of the industrial sectors under the most pressure since the crisis began, our members report a tremendous increase in consumer complaints about travel issues. In a nutshell, travellers’ rights to a refund for pre-payments, as stipulated by EU Passenger rights regulations and the national transposition of the Package Travel Directive, are being violated and consumers are facing a proliferation of potentially unfair practices from travel and tourism operators. In addition, travellers are confused by the various national measures on vouchers and the postponement of reimbursement, which are in breach of the above-mentioned European legislations.

While BEUC and its members praise EU initiatives to facilitate the adoption of national measures to avoid insolvency, protect jobs and support a rapid recovery of the tourism industries, we would like to stress that it is not only businesses that are suffering, but also consumers who are also facing liquidity problems.

In order to find a balanced solution that maintains a high level of consumer protection during the crisis while allowing businesses to access liquidity quickly, BEUC has compiled a list of recommendations for travellers’ rights in the COVID-19 context.