Originally Posted by
sledge1
Maybe a silly question but when Bott and Co or MCOL cases succeed, do BA only have to pay the compensation or do BA also incur courts costs and other charges ??
Yes, if BA are on the losing side of the argument they have to pay the court costs as well as the compensation, as well as a limited range of the complainants costs too (e.g. postage and photocopying, potentially interest). If the claimant loses then they lose whatever they have sunk into court fees already but are rarely pinged for additional costs. The exception is if the complainant doesn't turn up in court, then BA has in the past asked the judge for their costs to be recovered and judges may (or may not) ping £250 or so on to the complainant - judges are not impressed when this happens. However, with that exception apart, if it gets to a court hearing, and in particular if BA need supporting legal advice, the costs for the airline are pretty significant and not recoverable regardless of outcome, and in theory that's quite a deterrent.
The regulator for this area is the CAA - which has a fairly mixed record in this area, putting it politely. It set up ADR / CEDR so that it didn't get snowed under with the minutae of cases, and occasionally has funded legal fees for passengers against airlines not in the ADR.