Article 8.1-a) of the Regulation (EU) 261/2004
In its judgment dated 12th September 2018, Case C-601/17, the EUCJ held that Regulation EU n. 261/2004, and in particular Article 8.1-a) thereof, must be interpreted as meaning that the price of the ticket to be taken into consideration for the purposes of determining the reimbursement owed by the air carrier to a passenger in the event of cancellation of a flight includes the difference between the amount paid by that passenger and the amount received by the air carrier, which corresponds to a commission collected by a person (or authorised agent) acting as an intermediary between those two parties, unless that commission was set without the knowledge of the air carrier, which it is for the referring court to ascertain.
The Court took into account that the objectives of Regulation EU n. 261/2004 are not only to ensure a high level of protection for passengers but also to strike a balance between the interests of passengers and those of air carriers.
In the light of those objectives, the Court considered that, while a commission collected by an intermediary from a passenger when a ticket was bought must, in principle, be regarded as a component of the price to be reimbursed to that passenger in the event of cancellation of the corresponding flight, its inclusion must nevertheless be subject to certain limits, in view of the interests of the air carriers which it affects.
