YuropFlyer

Pretty much.

The Norwegian gouvernment must have totally lost the plot. Retroactively increasing a tax, yeah, right.. if they had any common sense, they would only increase a tax on any future bookings. Or in fact not increase taxes but rather cut spendings.

jerjeffr

Very well said. Just like no airline has ever made one pay for baggage before.

fuyao

However, EU consumer protection is a total different game today so you can't compare todays legal system with something 20ys ago.

dmitrijsadlo

Norway is not in the EU. It may have implemented some legislation voluntarily though.

dliesse

Two points are confusing me here:

1. What's this about a retroactive tax? According to the linked page (dated 20 May 16) it was passed in December 2015, to take effect 1 Apr 16, and then postponed to 1 Jun 16. The airline might be trying to collect it retroactively (not a good PR move), but I don't see that the government has imposed it retroactively.

2. VAT on a tax? That does seem strange!

Bakpapier

Considering that you are not based in Norway (from your location) I would certainly not pay it. I would take the letter, fold it into a nice airplane and throw it out the window.

And if they charge your credit card (which, judging fomr the thread, they are not allowed to do) immediately call your bank and get that cancelled. What are they going to do? Ban you from flying norwegian ever again? Ban you from Norway? That'd cost them much more revenue in the end.

All they can do is ask you to pretty please pay up voluntarily.

Bakpapier

VAT is collected on taxes here all the time. VAT is collected over the total gasoline price, for example, a large part of which is already a tax.

Taxes over taxes, welcome to Europe.

aaronhowe78

I paid the tax, because I'm flying in November and I'm worried they would have otherwise cancelled the ticket. It's not a huge amount of money, significant against the cost of the ticket mind you, but there you go.

Could they have cancelled the ticket, if I hadn't really paid in full for it?

irishguy28

It has to implement (almost?) all EU regulations in order to obtain/retain access to the single market and, as another example, to be a party to the various EU open skies treaties.

irishguy28

Of course not. But they could have forced you to pay the arrears before issuing a boarding pass and/or before accepting your check-in luggage and/or before allowing you to board the flight.

I have a ticket booked for January, but it is a "throwaway ticket" booked months ago, when prices were still rock bottom, as a potential fall-back position in case I miss my "main" repositioning flight back from OSL after yet another cheap ex-OSL biz ticket to the States.

I was willing to fork out €35 to have a seat on the very last flight to AMS on that Janaury night just in case something goes wrong with my plans earlier in the day. But I am not going to pay the tax now, unless I actually have to take the flight, which I won't know until the day in question.

I will update this thread with any developments as they occur

irishguy28

But they most definitely have.

All airlines operating in/from Norway have to pay the first batch of taxes on 18 July. Every passenger that has travelled on a flight departing from a Norwegian airport - with the sole exception of Svalbard airport, and all passengers aged under 2 - now gives rise to a NOK80 or NOK88 (for domestic flights) per passenger liability which the airlines now owe the government.

Some airlines, such as SAS, said that they would absorb the costs themselves for those passengers who had already paid for tickets in the affected timeframe prior to the final, very late, confirmation of parliament that the tax would go ahead.

Others, such as Norwegian and Ryanair, attempted to retroactively collect these taxes from the affected customers. Ryanair has thrown a predictable fit and is diverting airframes based in Norway to other countries in protest. RYG airport is likely to close in October as a result.

WilcoRoger

I don't see how. The law was passed in December 2015 and came into force in June 2016 - where's the retroactivity? (one might argue that tix bought before Dec 2015 for travel after Jun 2016 might be affected)

If airlines sold tickets after Dec for flights after 1/June without this tax component, it's their mistake and a different matter.

irishguy28

People have purchased tickets in the period between July 2015 and May 2016 for travel after 1 June 2016. These people paid no tax, because no tax was due.

However, parliament decreed that tax is due on all passengers travelling from 1 June onwards, regardless of when they paid. Therefore, there are a substantial number of passengers subject to the tax which the airlines are expected to pay for, although they never got the chance to collect the tax from the passenger.

How would they have known in December that the tax would be introduced on 1 June? The Norwegian government didn't announce the date until the second half of May. And I don't think you can seriously argue that any airline should have been levying the tax, "just in case", for all tickets sold since December, or any other random date. Unless every airline flying to Norway did the same, it would put that "diligent" airline at a huge disadvantage by making their flights more expensive than their competitors. Plus, it would have caused the problem of having to refund hundreds/thousands of customers who had paid a tax that wasn't required.

It was the airlines wish that the tax would never be introduced in the first place. It ran into trouble with the EFTA too, who investigated whether the exemption for transit/transfer passengers would amount to illegal state aid. There was a lot of hope in the industry that the tax would never be introduced at all. Similar taxes were scrapped after a very short period in both Ireland and the Netherlands.

ft101

Upthread (post #20) it says I've no idea who's right here, but it's different dates from those you mention.

Even with the earlier date though, there will be pax who purchased before then for flights after June 2016 who Norwegian hope to charge retroactively.

irishguy28

Yes, this is the crux.

Norwegian assumed they would just be able to collect the taxes retroactively (after issuing the ticket). Now they find that they are unable to under Norwegian law. And yet they are liable for tax on each of these tickets.

So they try to get people to voluntarily pay, as a first step.