Case C‑255/15

Steef Mennens

v

Emirates Direktion für Deutschland

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Amtsgericht Düsseldorf)

‛Reference for a preliminary ruling — Air transport — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 — Article 2(f) and Article 10(2) — Partial reimbursement of the ticket price where a passenger is downgraded on a flight — Concepts of ‘ticket’ and ‘price of the ticket’ — Calculation of the reimbursement owed to the passenger’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 22 June 2016

1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Examination of the jurisdiction of the referring court to hear the case in the main proceedings — Not included

   (Art. 267 TFEU)

2. Transport — Air transport — Regulation No 261/2004 — Compensation and assistance to passengers — Flight — Concept

   (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 261/2004)

3. Transport — Air transport — Regulation No 261/2004 — Compensation and assistance to passengers — Partial reimbursement of the price of the ticket where a passenger is downgraded on a flight — Calculation — Downgrading of a passenger in possession of a ticket covering several flights — Only the price of the single flight concerned taken into account

   (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 261/2004, Art. 2(f) and 10(2))

4. Transport — Air transport — Regulation No 261/2004 — Compensation and assistance to passengers — Partial reimbursement of the price of the ticket where a passenger is downgraded on a flight — Calculation — Taxes and charges which are not intrinsic to the price of the ticket taken into account — Not included

   (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 261/2004, Art. 10(2))

1.  In preliminary ruling proceedings, it is not for the Court, given the allocation of functions between itself and the national courts, to determine whether the decision to refer has been taken in accordance with the rules of national law governing the organisation of courts and their procedure or, consequently, to reject the request for a preliminary ruling on the ground that the alleged lack of jurisdiction of the referring court to hear to case in the main proceedings.

   (see paras 13, 15)

2.  A flight, within the meaning of Regulation No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, flight consists in an air transport operation, being as it were a unit of such transport, performed by an air carrier which fixes its itinerary.

   (see para. 20)

3.  Article 10(2), read in conjunction with Article 2(f), of Regulation No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights must be interpreted as meaning that where a passenger is downgraded on a flight, the price to be taken into account in determining the reimbursement for the passenger affected is the price of the flight on which he was downgraded.

   In that regard, the ticket is the document entitling the passenger to transport, which itself is capable of applying, as the case may be, to one or more flights. Each one of those flights which constitutes a unit of transport is, in principle, intended to be performed in accordance with the conditions agreed upon between the passenger and the air carrier. Those conditions include, inter alia, the placing of that passenger in a specific class. Where the air carrier places that passenger on a specific flight in a lower class than that for which his ticket was purchased, that passenger does not benefit, on the flight at issue, from the service agreed upon in consideration for the price paid. However, that downgrading has no impact on the services agreed upon for any other flights which the ticket permits that passenger to take. Accordingly, Article 10(2) of Regulation No 261/2004 does not to apply to those other flights.

   Consequently, it is only the price of the flight on which that passenger was downgraded that is to be used as a basis for the reimbursement provided for under that provision, and not the overall price of the transport to which that ticket entitles him. However, where the ticket merely states the overall price for the transport of the passenger and therefore does not specify the price of the flight on which the downgrading took place, the basis should be the part of the price of the ticket corresponding to the quotient resulting from the distance of the flight in question and the total distance which the passenger is entitled to travel.

   (see paras 21, 22, 24, 25, 29, 30, 32, operative part 1)

4.  Article 10(2) of Regulation No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights must be interpreted as meaning that the price of the ticket to be taken into consideration for the purposes of determining the reimbursement owed to that passenger, where he is downgraded on a flight, is solely the price of the flight itself, to the exclusion of taxes and charges indicated on that ticket, as long as neither the requirement to pay those taxes and charges nor their amount depends on the class for which that ticket has been purchased.

   (see para. 43, operative part 2)