Not being a lawyer, let alone a German lawyer, I'm curious: Will German contract law even apply here? It sounds like the ticket was originally booked as an ex-US, despite the long stopover in Berlin. Since OP seems to be conceding that this scenario (or his/her handling of it) is going to fall outside the EU regulations, would German courts jump into this dispute? I couldn't find anything about this in the CoC but also didn't look very hard.