More online travel agencies commit to refund within 14 days for cancelled flights, following a dialogue with the Commission and consumer authorities

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Following a dialogue with the European Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network of national consumer authorities, Expedia and Lastminute.com have committed to better inform consumers of their rights and ensure they receive ticket refunds within 14 days in case of a flight cancellation by the airline.

Overview of commitments

Following the dialogue, Expedia and Lastminute.com signed up to the following set of commitments:

• In case of cancelled flights, Expedia and Lastminute.com will transfer refunds from the airline on to the consumer within 7 days from the day the online travel agency receives the refund from the airline, resulting in a refund in 14 days maximum for consumers. In addition, they declared to have cleared any backlogs in reimbursements.
• The online travel agencies’ contact details, such as telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, will be providedin or via the support or ‘contact us’ sections of their websites – so that consumers can easily get in touch with them.
• Information on the specific benefits linked to different service packages offered by the online travel agencies will be made clearer for consumers.
• Consumers will be clearly informed about their statutory rights under the Air Passenger Rights Regulation to rerouting or reimbursement in cases where the airline cancels their flights. They will also be clearly informed if the flight was cancelled.
• Consumers will be clearly informed about the consequences that specific services offered by airline intermediaries can have on the consumer’s rights in the event of a flight disruption (e.g. when only one leg of a trip is cancelled, the second leg may still have to be paid where there is no interlink between the flights constituting the journey).

Lastminute.com has agreed to implement most of those commitments starting on 1 July 2025, with full implementation by 1 September 2025, while Expedia has declared that its practices are in line with the above commitments.

This dialogue, led by the Swedish Consumer Agency, sought to encourage online travel agencies to voluntarily adopt practices that enhance consumer’s protection and knowledge of their rights, as well as platform’s compliance with EU legislation. It builds on the 2023 coordinated action led by the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, which secured the same commitments from Edreams ODIGEO, Etraveli Group, and Kiwi.com. This brings the total to five major online travel agencies adhering to the same commitments.

Next steps

The network of European consumer protection authorities will monitor whether Expedia and Lastminute.com have correctly implemented the commitments by the agreed timeline. The network will also continue to monitor the implementation of the commitments by Edreams ODIGEO, Etraveli Group and Kiwi.com. The network will furthermore continue to promote these commitments to other online travel agencies.

Background

Lastminute.com was previously subject to a national enforcement action by the Swedish Consumer Agency, during which it agreed to the commitments for the Swedish market. By signing up to the commitments with the CPC Network, Lastminute.com has now declared that it will adhere to these commitments in the entire European Economic Area. Expedia voluntarily signed up to the commitments outside any enforcement actions at national or EU level.

Under EU passenger rights, airlines cancelling a flight are required to refund tickets within 7 days once the passenger has opted to have the flight reimbursed. However, airline tickets can also be bought through an intermediary (an ‘online travel agency’). The 2023 commitments to which Expedia and Lastminute.com have now signed up provide clarity for such cases: consumers will receive their refund within 14 days maximum. This step also helps create a fair and level playing field within the travel airline industry.

In November 2023, the Commission proposed new rules as regards enforcement of passenger rights in the Union and on passenger rights in the context of multimodal journeys. The proposed rules foresee the same timeframe for reimbursement via intermediaries for cancelled flight costs (14 days maximum). These proposals, as well as the 2013 proposal on air passenger rights, are currently being negotiated by the co-legislators.

The CPC Network is a network of authorities responsible for the enforcement of EU consumer protection laws. To tackle cross-border infringements of consumer law, those national authorities, assisted by the European Commission, coordinate their investigation and enforcement actions. The specific cooperation and coordination mechanism under which the network operates is governed by the Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation.