A top European court has just settled a lengthy disagreement between the Dutch flag carrier KLM and several passengers over whether the airline was responsible for refunding commission charged by an online travel agent.
KLM had argued that it didn’t even know the travel agent was charging a commission, let alone how much the commission was, so how could it be held responsible for refunding this money?
On Thursday, however, the court ruled in favor of the passengers, and the judgment actually makes complete sense.
Airline passengers take KLM to court over ticket refund
In early 2020, two passengers booked tickets with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to travel from Vienna in Austria to Lima, Peru via a short stopover in Amsterdam Schiphol.
The passengers paid a total of €2,053 for the tickets via the Opodo online travel agency, which was originally set up by a consortium of airlines, including KLM, before being sold off.
Due to travel restrictions put in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the flights were cancelled, and the passengers requested a full refund under European passenger rights regulations.
KLM processed the refund request, but only sent the passengers a payment for €1,958. It emerged that Opodo had charged a commission of €95 per passenger to book these tickets, which KLM did not refund.
The passengers weren’t willing to accept anything less than a full refund on what they had paid, so they made an official complaint with Austria’s official consumer rights watchdog.
The watchdog agreed with the passengers, but KLM appealed the decision to a local court, which sided with KLM. In turn, the watchdog appealed the judgment and the case eventually ended up in the European Court of Justice.
KLM says it didn’t even know Opodo had charged a commission
KLM argued that it didn’t even know Opodo charged a commission on the sale of the tickets, let alone how much the commission amount was, so how could it be responsible for refunding this amount?
Bear in mind, however, that KLM had been closely collaborating with Opodo for at least a decade, and the airline had a contract with the travel agency. Austria’s consumer protection watchdog argued that KLM must have been aware that Opodo was charging passengers a commission, and therefore, it would be unfair not to expect the airline to refund this commission.
An Austrian appeals court agreed that an airline cannot be unaware that one of its authorized agents is charging passengers a commission, but referred the case to the European Court of Justice to decide who is responsible for proving the exact amount owed to passengers.
European Court of Justice sides with passengers
The European Court of Justice made its judgment very clear. Airlines don’t need to know the exact amount in commission that a travel agency has charged or even whether commission has been charged.
Its legal responsibilities are, in fact, very simple: it just needs to refund the exact amount that passengers paid for the tickets, not how much money it received from the travel agency.
In their ruling, the judges concluded that allowing airlines not to refund commission fees or forcing passengers to take legal action to recover these costs could dissuade travelers from using online travel agencies, even if the tickets were cheaper than booking direct with the airline.
Judges are usually very pro-consumer but dog lovers beware
The European Court of Justice has proven to be very pro-consumer in air passenger rights cases, although one recent judgment was a blow for animal lovers.
In October 2025, the court ruled that a dog or other pet is worth just US $2,179 if an airline ends up killing, losing, or seriously injuring it in transit.
The ruling stems from a case brought by a woman who sued Spanish airline Iberia after her pet dog was lost at Madrid Barajas Airport. The woman sued Iberia for €5,000 for emotional distress, but the airline argued that it only owed her compensation for lost baggage.
The ECJ sided with Iberia, concluding that for legal purposes, a pet dog is considered ‘baggage’ and, as such, compensation is capped at $2,179.
