FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Media falls hook, line, and sinker for WOW airlines press release. How will AC react?
Old Oct 1, 2015, 11:08 am
  #5  
Guava
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Join Date: Nov 2000
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Originally Posted by SparseFlyer
I too was under the impression that this was required by law.
Depends on whose law you are talking about. Consumer protection and price accuracy claims typically fall under provincial jurisdictions and in the U.S., that is only defined at the State level, if any exists at all. Although air transportation is regulated federally, WoW being an Icelandic company means there will be little to none federal oversight apart from safety or registration issues. Being a non-Canadian company complicates the legal matter so the only recourse you will have is the fact that WoW actually flies into two Canadian provinces and in the event of adverse judgement against WoW, the Court can order WoW's assets be seized. But say you are a resident of Manitoba and you want to bring a misleading advertisement claim against WoW in Manitoba under its laws, then you will probably be wasting your time since WoW does not fly to Manitoba and courts in Manitoba cannot seize assets outside of its territory. You can try to have the Manitoba decision executed and recognized in Ontario since ON will entertain legal rulings from all provinces except Québec. But that is not guaranteed and it will require more time and cost so unless your case is worth several thousands and possibly 5 figures or above, the effort is just not worthwhile.

WoW is only flying to Boston and Washington D.C. so far. YYZ and YUL are its newest destinations but WoW may be under the false impression that Canadian regulation is just like in the U.S. where companies can pretty much do whatever they want. For that matter, many companies, even the large ones, learn the hard way just how different the law can be between Ontario and Québec, especially foreign companies doing business in Canada for the first time. Many would start by studying laws in Ontario, then assume doing business in Québec simply means translating whatever there is in Ontario into French. For example, on the shop.ca thread, many people reported receiving cancellation notice from shop.ca after the order was accepted and paid for due to X reason. While in Ontario, shop.ca acting as an agent between the supplier and the consumer has no other legal responsibility other than refunds the full amount, in Québec, the contract is deem to be between the consumer and shop.ca, not whatever supplier the product is coming from and refund does not absolve a legal contractual relationship that was created. If the 33lb of dog foods from X supplier is not available, then shop.ca would be liable to find another dog food supplier if so insisted by the consumer. Or alternatively, the consumer can buy the quantity of dog foods required elsewhere and if he/she incurred a higher cost as result, he/she can legally bill the difference to shop.ca Somehow, I don't think even shop.ca understands that since most companies assume laws of Ontario applies to entire Canada but it is not.

Originally Posted by RSWillson
The fares referred to in the PR are inclusive of taxes and fees, but it does not claim they are inclusive of any additional services such as baggage, advanced seat selection etc.

So it is the same as AC (or any other carrier) quoting their fares but piling on extra charges for those same items.
It's not the same situation. zorn, the OP specifically mentioned fares from June onward is the same price but applies only to the base fares. Since air transportation in Canada cannot be bought with just base fares, if the advertised prices fail to include thing such as airport taxes, then it's misleading advertising.
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