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I was briefly considering cancelling a flight booked with Ryanair today. By a recent EU court ruling airlines must disclose taxes and fees in their ticket price and refund these without charging additional fees.

My booking was made directly with Ryanair 10 days after the court ruling and does not list the taxes and fees component in the price neither in the confirmation email nor can I find it anywhere when I look up my booking on their website.
I also tried to make a new booking and could not find taxes & fees listed anywhere until I arrived at the payment step.

Regarding refund fees, Ryanair's current refund policy seems to be in violation of the court ruling (both in having the fee and the limitation to government tax):

If you do not travel on your booked flight the air fare, fees and charges are non-refundable but you may apply in writing within one month of the date of travel for a refund of the Government Tax paid. Government tax refunds are subject to an administration fee. click here for fee details. If the refund amount is less than the applicable administration fee, no refund will be made.

Is the ruling above already in place? Is there some sort of transition period? If yes to the first, where can I see the taxes & fees component with my Ryanair flights?

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First - a disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This is just my understanding.

In respect of the handling fee the ruling from the European Court of Justice is a fairly technical one relating to the precedence of national laws and essentially says that the contracts governing air fares can be assessed for unfairness. It doesn't rule on the issue of cancellation fees at all.

In the case of Air Berlin the contract terms had already been found to be unfair by German courts, and thus that ruling now applies to them. There doesn't appear to be any direct effect on contract terms of other airlines in Germany or elsewhere. Those contract terms would have to be assessed by the relevant courts (the Irish courts in the case of Ryanair) on a case by case basis.

In respect of taxes and fees it seems from your question that they are displayed at the payment step, so this is probably in compliance with the ruling from the ECJ.

Although this is an aviation related question, you might get a more authoritative answer on Law

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  • That's a good answer and +1, but I do believe German law would apply to Ryanair flights operated into/out of Germany and when the ticket was sold on their German website etc. And to be clear, taxes are displayed at no step whatsoever as far as I can tell. Probably a consumer rights organization will need to sue also Ryanair before they comply.
    – mts
    Sep 25, 2017 at 17:33
  • @mts You may be right about German law - as I said, you might get a better answer on Law.se. It wouldn't be the first time an organisation has dragged its heels implementing something that doesn't suit it. As you say, it might take a court case to resolve.
    – user67901
    Sep 25, 2017 at 21:45

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