"Air carriers consciously violate passenger rights many times"

9. december 2016 ob 11.27 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

ome airlines do not respond to passenger complaints and very often cite extraordinary circumstances. And even though they consciously violate legislation regulating passenger rights in cases like delays, flight cancelations or denied boarding, they always rely on an outcome in which there will be no individual complaints. Foto: Pixabay

"31 percent of all the complaints in the year 2015 fell in the area of transport. The ones that stand out the most are complaints connected to air traffic," Romana Javornik, the head of the Slovenian European Consumer Centre, comments the most frequent problems consumers face.

Due to its festive character the month of December is when the shopping fever reaches its climax. And among the mass number of purchased items it often happens that consumers are not satisfied with the merchandise or service they pay for. In such cases, it is much easier to resolve problems with sellers on home ground than it is in far away countries - like for example if you buy merchandise or services online. For complications with foreign merchants operating in the EU, citizens of the European Union can turn to their local European consumer centres, which try solve the issues through their sister organizations.

"We work in a network of European consumer centres and we are connected with centres in other EU countries when resolving complaints and consumer problems arising in EU member states, Iceland and Norway. If a Slovenian consumer is unable to solve a problem in those countries on his own, he can then turn to our centre for help. A complaint can be filed on a form on our website. We then look into the problem to find out whether there is a basis for the complaint according to European legislation. After that we pass on the complaint to the centre in the country where the purchase was made. In that way we make contact with the seller of the product and call on him to fulfill the demands of the consumer i.e. to respect the existing legislation," says the head of the Slovenian European Consumer Centre Romana Javornik.
The head of the Slovenian European Consumer Centre also stresses that their powers are informal, but that the work of the network of European consumer centres is supported and financed by the European Commission and EU member states. "Consumers can run into many obstacles abroad, like language barriers or great distances between them and the sellers. It is easier for the centre in the country of the merchant to make contact with the seller. Those centres are also more aware of the local environment and practices," says Javornik. By being assisted by the European Consumer Centre, consumers have a 50:50 chance to resolve their issues to their advantage. At least that’s what the statistics say. Last year the Slovenian European Consumer Centre was successful in 52 percent of the complaints filed by Slovenian consumers.