Blue Air was fined a second time by ANPC. See the amounts with which the airline was sanctioned!
Given the situation generated, on the market, by the commercial behavior of the economic operator Blue Air Aviation SA and its continuation, the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) carried out an extensive control action that took into account how to comply with the legal provisions from the field of consumer protection regarding the air transport services of the operator, initially checking the situation of canceled flights between 15.06.2022 and 30.08.2022 and the offers made by the economic operator both on the official website, www.flyblueair.com, as well as on the official Facebook page of this or from the Blue Air application and subsequently extended, as a result of the information appearing in the public space regarding the cancellation of all flights from 06.09.2022 to 10.10.2022.
Despite the difficult conduct of the investigation, caused by the delayed reactions of the economic operator to the requests of the ANPC team of commissioners regarding various documents necessary for the investigation, the conclusions of the analysis of the situation were finalized.
Thus, the control team found the use of unfair commercial practices on a large scale by the economic operator. Considering the provisions of art. 3 point 3 of Regulation (EU) no. 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12.12.2017, this means any action or omission that contravenes the legislation that protects the interests of consumers and that has caused, is causing or could cause damage to the collective interests of consumers who reside in at least two member states other than the state in which the action or omission in question originated or took place or in whose territory the trader responsible for the action or omission in question is established.
"Here is Blue Air making its last flight and leaving the market, as we were saying three months ago. From the last sanction to this second assessment, more than 100.000 consumers are going through what the first ones went through in the last two years. Where their money went, what it was spent on and how it will ever be recovered remains a big enigma…
One of the company's planes is lying on a runway of Baneasa airport, without both engines. I wonder how many races he would have had to perform, given that, without propellants, he could not move even on DN1.
No fuel, no airport taxes paid, no wages paid up to date, I still wonder how the races were going to be executed and why they were promoted when it was known they could not be completed. Not to mention the fact that without airplanes things would have been even more complicated. Do they or don't they have all these things? I wonder because the company representatives did not want to answer us.
I publicly declare that I submit to the polygraph test for the following aspects: if the company representative told us that he is considering leaving the market in the fall, if he told us that they will no longer have airplanes with which to complete the races.
Considering how much money is missing from the consumers' pockets, the fines applied by our Authority seem extremely small to me. I apologize to each victim for the past years, when things could have been more firmly sanctioned" - Horia Constantinescu, ANPC president.
The conclusions of the research carried out by the ANPC commissioners showed that:
- the economic operator Blue Air Aviation SA did not propose commitments or a plan of remedial measures for consumers within the deadline set by the competent authorities
- in the analyzed period, namely 15.06.2022 – 12.09.2022, 150.227 consumers from 23 member states of the European Union were affected,
- the economic operator's practice was repetitive
- the value of damages suffered by consumers amounts to EUR 19.582.065,96 (equivalent, calculated at the rate of 16.09.2022), respectively 96.447.549,47 LEI (equivalent, calculated at the rate of 16.09.2022), for the analyzed period and represents only the value of the purchased tickets, in reality the damage is much higher
- the actual reimbursement of the ticket value for the canceled flights was made to a very small number of passengers who were actually reimbursed, i.e. 598 reservations were reimbursed (representing 0,7% of the total of 80.826 canceled reservations), the total amount of the actual reimbursements being the equivalent a EUR 115.016,11 (0,6% of the total amount of canceled reservations, respectively EUR 19.582.065,96)
- a percentage of 9,8% of the total amount to be reimbursed, i.e. the sum of 1.924.762,33 EURO was reimbursed in the wallet (electronic wallet), representing 10.685 reimbursements.
Following these findings, the ANPC commissioners team decided to apply 2 contravention fines, one in the amount of 2 EURO, equivalent in lei at the exchange rate of 000 for the large-scale impact on consumers, at the level of the European Union, and a another in the amount of 000 lei for repeated violations. The total amount of fines is 04.10.2022 lei.
Complementary sanctions are added to them as follows:
- the remedial measure is ordered
- the measure to stop unfair commercial practices is proposed, in the sense of no longer putting on the market, at the disposal of consumers, misleading flight offers, for which the economic operator does not have the necessary resources to carry them out
- it is proposed to suspend the provision of services until the termination of the incorrect commercial practice or until the fulfillment of the ordered measures.