News

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd sought to recover damages exceeding £49,000,000 for the infringement of its flat bed airline seat patent. However, the Technical Board of Appeal (“TBA”) of the European Patent Office (“EPO”) found that in the form in which the patent was originally granted the relevant claims were invalid because they had been anticipated […]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) launched the case before a U.S. District Court in Oregon on behalf of 13 plaintiffs who are on the U.S. government’s secretive no-fly list. The plaintiffs, who include four U.S. military veterans, have never been told why they are on the list or given a reasonable opportunity to get

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) fined three ticket agents for violating the Department’s rules on disclosure of code-share flights. DOT’s Aviation Enforcement Office made telephone calls to a number of agents during January and February of 2013 and inquired about booking certain flights. During these calls, the reservations agents for all three companies failed

According to a report published in “Travel Weekly”, the travel industry in the U.S. struggled to decide how to handle Russia’s recently enacted anti-gay law, which could potentially put clients traveling to Russia at risk of arrest. The law prohibits the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations among minors” but is widely seen as a government-backed

The Egypt Tourist Authority released a YouTube video of Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou asking the travel industry to help lobby their governments to ease travel advisories and to assist Egypt’s tourism recovery, which has been crippled by the country’s ongoing political violence and unrest.Source: Travel Weekly; find article here>>.

According to an article published in “Travel Pulse”, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has released a guidance document for travel agencies that operate Internet flight-search tools on how these agencies should disclose the carriers they do not market in their search results. In particular, DOT will consider it an unfair practice to simply report

The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) opened a consultation on commitmentsproposed by Booking.com B.V. (Booking.com), Expedia Inc (Expedia) and InterContinental Hotels Group plc (IHG), designed to address its competition concerns in relation to the online offering of room only hotel accommodation bookings by Online Travel Agents (OTAs).The three businesses under investigation are proposing to

The German Verwaltungsgerichtshof Baden-Württemberg has filed a reference for preliminary ruling to the ECJ regarding interpretation of Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 on standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States. The reference includes the following questions:In accordance with the annex to Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004, must the personal

The latest edition of the IFTTA Law review containing a message of the president and articles by Gianluca Rossoni on the impact of the EU Consumer Rights Directive on tourism and by Maria Goretti Sanches Lima on package travel in the EU and Brazil is now available online in the members area of this website.

Pursusant to the Official Languages Act, Canadians have the right to communicate with federal institutions in either of the two official languages English and French. Air Canada is subject to this act and therefore must provide services in both official languages.Mr and Mrs Thibodeau – passengers on round-trip flights leaving from Canada and travelling out