Originally Posted by
NickB
Well, they would say that wouldn't they? They are entirely opposed to the legislation and are trying to argue that they are hard done by, so of course they are going to say that it is "punitive". ...
I do not understand your point. The passage you quote merely says that a high level of consumer protection should be strived at and that a level playing field should be ensured among airlines in Europe by having common rules (which is standard justification for internal market legislation). There is nothing in there whatsoever to suggest that levels of compensation are meant to be "punitive".
As posted I posted earlier on post #807:
Originally Posted by
serfty
Fair enough - though there must be some adjective to adequately describe, in this context, the intention of "... raise the standards of protection set by that Regulation ... to strengthen the rights of passengers ...".
If 'punitive' is not a word you might use then so be it - but the regulated compensation was increased to a level that can make it very costly for a carrier to not consider "the rights of passengers".