Germany

The defendant advertised holiday homes at Germany's Baltic coast in the internet where he indicated prices per week. However, only at the very end of the advertisment additional costs of a "final cleaning" were mentioned. The court (Schleswig-Holsteinsches OLG) held that the advertisment was contrary to German pricing law which requires the indication of the final price including all costs, fees and taxes.

The plainitff had booked a cruise to the Caribbean and a flight ticket with defendant who acted as agent on behalf of the organiser and the airline. The flight was not part of the cruise package but booked separately. The cruise was scheduled to depart from Ft Lauderdale on 19 April, 2010. However, the closure of the European airspace due to the 'ash cloud crisis' prevented the planitff to fly to Florida. He therefore cancelled the cruise. The organiser charged a cancellation fee of 90 % which the agent paid.

In the two cases decided by the German Supreme Court (BGH) recently, the plaintiffs each had booked long haul flights with non Commnunity carriers. In both cases the transportation consisted of two segments, a feeder flight departing from the EU to a non EU hub and a connecting flight departing from this hub outside the EU to the final destination. In both cases the connecting flights were delayed more than 8 hrs and the plaintiffs sued for compensation pursuant to Reg. (EC) 261/2004.