Italian competition regulators have opened an investigation into alleged deceptive checked luggage pricing by the European low-cost airline EasyJet, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) announced on Tuesday.
According to the AGCM, EasyJet has been displaying the combined cost to check a bag into the hold for the outbound and return legs of a return flight, rather than giving customers an upfront cost of what it would cost for each leg.
Regulators have suggested that customers are unwittingly purchasing checked luggage for both legs of a return journey, even if they only need the allowance for one of the legs.
Because checked luggage prices dynamically vary from one flight to the next, EasyJet displays the average total cost to check a bag for both legs of a return flight. Passengers, therefore, don’t know the cost to check the bag for each individual leg.
In order to see the seperate prices and only select checked luggage for just one leg of a trip, passengers must make additional clicks in the booking flow to override EasyJet’s default bundle selection.
According to the AGCM, “this conduct could constitute a misleading and aggressive commercial practice.”
In a statement released on Tuesday, the watchdog said it initially requested voluntary compliance from easyJet, but because the airline refused to change the booking flow, it has now opened a formal investigation.
In January, EasyJet was reprimanded by Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the airline’s claim that passengers could buy a large cabin bag allowance from just £5.99.
The quoted price was, however, just the lowest price available, although the airline could provide zero evidence of what routes this low fee was available on or how often customers had actually been presented this price.
EasyJet’s cabin baggage pricing is also set dynamically, and the airline said that the “from £5.99” claim was merely a guide that gave customers an idea of the starting point of the cost to bring a cabin bag onboard the plane.
While the ASA said it has no reason not to believe EasyJet’s claims, it considered that consumers would understand the statement of “from £5.99” to mean that this price was available on a substantial number of routes.
EasyJet amended its website, which now reads: “fees vary with demand, route, flight date, and time of booking. You’ll see the exact price at the time of purchase.”
The ASA didn’t fine EasyJet, although any penalty from Italy’s AGCM could be a lot harsher.
Last December, Ryanair was slapped with a massive €255 million (US $300 million) fine over its alleged “abusive strategy” towards travel agencies, in which the airline cut off third-party websites from accessing its inventory in favor of a direct distribution model.
Ryanair says that it is confident it can annul the fine on appeal. Court proceedings are ongoing.
