Case C‑330/17

Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Württemberg e.V.

v

Germanwings GmbH

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesgerichtshof)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 — Article 2(18) — Article 23(1) — Transport — Common rules for the operation of air services in the European Union — Information — Indication of the final price to be paid — Inclusion of the air fare in the final price to be paid — Obligation to indicate air fares in euros or local currency — Choice of the relevant local currency — Connecting factors)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber), 15 November 2018

1. Transport — Air transport — Common rules for the operation of air services in the EU — Regulation No 1008/2008 — Fares — Information required when offering air fares to passengers — Purpose — Transparency of prices

   (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1008/2008, recital 16 and Arts 2(18) and 23(1))

2. Transport — Air transport — Common rules for the operation of air services in the EU — Regulation No 1008/2008 — Fares — Information required when offering air fares to passengers — Obligation to indicate air fares in euros or local currency — Scope — Choice of the relevant national currency — Connecting factors

   (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1008/2008, Arts 2(18) and 23(1))

1.  See the text of the decision.

   (see para. 27)

2.  Article 23(1) in conjunction with Article 2(18) of Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 2008 on common rules for the operation of air services in the Community must be interpreted as meaning that, when indicating air fares for intra-Community air services, air carriers who do not express those fares in euros are required to choose a local currency that is objectively linked to the service offered. That is the case in particular of the currency which is legal tender in the Member State in which the place of departure or arrival of the flight is located.

   Thus, in a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, in which an air carrier established in a Member State in which the euro is legal tender offers on the internet an air service for which the place of departure of the flight is located in another Member State in which a currency other than the euro is legal tender, the air fares may, if they are not expressed in euros, be indicated in the currency which is legal tender in that other Member State.

   In this context, it cannot be accepted that, by choosing to express air fares for intra-Community air services in a currency other than the euro, air carriers can make the comparison of prices by the customers concerned more difficult or even impossible in practice, without fundamentally calling into question the objective of price comparability pursued by Article 23(1) of Regulation No 1008/2008 and consequently depriving that provision of a great part of its effectiveness. It should be added that, as the Advocate General essentially observes in point 64 of his Opinion, effective comparability of prices would be facilitated if air carriers indicated air fares in a local currency objectively linked to the service offered.

   (see paras 35, 36, 39, 40, operative part)