Decision concerning complaint 1023/2022/VS against the European Commission on how it replied to an e-mail concerning a complaint about an airline

Dear Mr X,

You recently submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman concerning the reply by the European Commission (Air Passenger Rights Team) to your complaint about the airline TAP. You complain that following your e-mails, the Commission did not investigate malpractices on the part of TAP.

After a careful analysis of all the information you provided with your complaint, our assessment is as follows.

The Commission provided you with reasonable and appropriate replies. In particular, the Commission correctly informed you that its role is to oversee and monitor the implementation of the EU rules on air passenger rights by the Member States and that it has no power of redress, cannot assess the merits of a particular case or intervene in individual disputes between passengers and air carriers. The Commission also provided you with correct information on possible procedures and redress mechanisms that you can consider in your particular case.

On the basis of the above, we find no maladministration by the Commission in how it dealt with your complaint.^[1]

I appreciate this may not be your desired outcome, but I hope you find these explanations helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Tina Nilsson
Head of the Case-handling Unit

Strasbourg, 15/06/2022

 

[1] Full information on the procedure and rights pertaining to complaints can be found at https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/document/70707