Jail Time for Publishing Mistake Fares?
Meg Butler May 03, 2018
Ruh roh.
Heads up guys. When you’re posting about fares that are such great bargains they must be inaccurate, maybe avoid using the term “error fare” or “mistake fares.”
Lufthansa recently sued German website Urlaubspiraten for publishing an “error fare” on their site and social media pages.
The text of the ruling is in German, but Lufthansa’s argument was that by promoting these mistakes, more people purchase those fares before they can be corrected.
This, Lufthansa successfully argued, puts an undue burden on the airline to accommodate the fares and pay attorney’s fees to those who want to force them to abide by them.
The German court agreed, ruling against the website Urlaubspiraten and saying:
“The defendant acts unfairly, because she consciously exploits a recognizable mistake of the plaintiff and thus creates a significant competitive disadvantage for the plaintiff.”
The penalty for publicizing error fares? A 250,000 euro fine or 6 months in prison. However the ruling only censures naming fares with the wrong prices “error fares.” It isn’t clear yet what other, similar language is also actionable.
To read more on this story, go to Wandering Aramean or join the discussion in this forum.
Leave it to Lufthansa to go after such a website, but Lufthansa themselves still don't refund their tickets in accordance to court rulings.
??? The ruling appeared to have nothing to do with what the fare was called.
It is pretty much clear, however a blogger is not a lawyer and lack of understanding does not speak against the verdict but the blogger :-)