Court judgment against VS-Cancelled Flight

I was wondering of others experience regarding cancelled flight compensation claims under EC 261/2004.

I was reading an interesting account of a court case in London against VS earlier this year where a passenger didnt accept that a technical problem with an aircraft allowed Virgin to claim 'extraordinary circumstances' as a defence and the court awarded the passenger received 600 Euros compensation.
The judge found in the passenger's favour despite Virgin contesting th e claim all the way to a trial.

The matter is reported and discussed here http://flightmole.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11

There is also discussion as to whether the guidance given by Virgin and someother airlines is misleading as to when the compensation payable.

Welcome to V-Flyer!

I have no personal experience having just had a look at the link and given it a quick scan I am shocked that VS did not provide any lawyers at the hearing. VS are clearly not worried of a floodgates approach and the expense of legal action on behalf of the individual is making VS believe they can get away with it.

It could also be that VS have got a bit mixed up with regards to EC/UK law. Without getting to technical, EC law must prevail over UK law. EC 261/2004 is a regulation. Under EC law these regulations are 100% binding and capable of direct effect. This means that the regulation is enforcable by individuals in national courts.

Of course the airlines are pretty hush hush about this regulation existing. The person in the link did the correct thing, VS refused to acknowledge the regulation so he began proceedings.

I would imagine that any threat to claim under the regulation to VS now would result in compensation being awarded by VS.

Molinari
Really interesting. Thanks for posting the info[y]
R-P

A very interesting post and from the perspective of setting legal precedents, I can only wonder what VAA think they've done to their own future position by letting this claim run its full course...?