19.02.08

 

 

 

Ryanair today (19^th Feb) welcomed the Norwegian Court of Appeals decision which dismissed the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman’s case, to force Ryanair to abandon its small refunds administration fee. The Norwegian court has confirmed that Ryanair’s refund administration fee was both reasonable and justified in the context of processing refunds of Government taxes. The Norwegian court also awarded Ryanair its legal costs of 300,000 NOK. (€40,000)

 

Ryanair’s Head of Customer Services Caroline Green said;

 

 “We welcome today’s decision by the Norwegian Court which ruled against the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman. This was a case which should never have been taken in the first place given that Ryanair’s refund administration fee is reasonable and much lower than the administration fees of other airlines. This common sense ruling recognizes that standard international airline practice should also apply in Norway.

 

“This case has highlighted the misguided and idiotic behaviour of the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman. This individual’s office has been silent in recent years while SAS were convicted of price fixing, and has remained silent while SAS has been increasing unfair and unjustified fuel surcharges.

 

“We cannot understand why the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman seems to spend all of his time attacking Ryanair which is the only airline to guarantee competition, the lowest fares and no fuel surcharges in Norway. We hope that this defeat will encourage the Ombudsman to pursue cases on behalf of consumers in future, instead of wasting time and money protecting high fare airlines like SAS. 

 

“Ryanair will use this 300,000 NOK from the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman to launch a new low fare seat sale for Norwegian consumers. This will be the first time in many years that the Norwegian consumer Ombudsman will actually have done something useful for consumers”.