Ryanair e Wizz Air they deceive passengers on the ticket price by playing on the hand luggage policy. It was established byAntitrust, which concluded the investigations into the two low-cost airlines, ascertaining that the changes made to the transport rules for large cabin baggage, the trolley, “constitute an unfair commercial practice – writes the Authority – as they mislead the consumer about the actual ticket price, by no longer including in the basic fare an essential element of the air carriage contract which is large hand luggage". The fines are three million euros for the Irish carrier and one million for the Hungarian company.
From 1 November 2018, Ryanair and Wizz Air allow passengers to carry only one small bag at no extra cost, to be placed under the seat. The trolleyinstead, it entails an increase in the cost of the ticket from 5 to 25 euros and must be placed in the overhead bins, i.e. in the space dedicated to large hand luggage.
Too bad practically no one travels with a simple handbag: almost all of the passengers are used to leaving with the famous trolley in tow.
Furthermore, according to the Antitrust, "hand luggage is an essential element of the air transport service and its transport must be permitted without incurring any additional cost".
The ploy by Ryanair and Wizz Air is also considered incorrect because European legislation on air transport provides that the "foreseeable and unavoidable" supplements must be included in the price of the basic service presented to the consumer from the very first moment. In other words, companies cannot carry out the entire booking procedure and then reveal to customers that they have to pay more for the trolley.
According to the Antitrust, therefore, the two companies have done nothing but raise the cost of tickets in a non-transparent way, “by separating from the fare an essential, predictable and unavoidable service for almost all passengers”. Hence the deception for consumers, "since the price to be paid at the end of the booking process will almost always be higher than the rate presented at the beginning of the process".
In this way Ryanair and Wizz Air also have damaged competition, altering the process of comparing prices with other companies which instead include hand luggage.
The companies will have to inform the Authority within 60 days of the measures adopted in compliance with the decision.
