DENIED BOARDING (COMPENSATION AND ASSISTANCE TO AIR PASSENGERS) REGULATIONS

DENIED BOARDING (COMPENSATION

AND ASSISTANCE TO AIR PASSENGERS)

SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 378.14

DENIED BOARDING (COMPENSATION AND

ASSISTANCE TO AIR PASSENGERS)

REGULATIONS

15th July, 2011

LEGAL NOTICE 280 of 2011, as amended by Act XVI of 2019.

The title of these regulations is the Denied Boarding

(Compensation and Assistance to Air Passengers) Regulations.

In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires

"the Act" means the Consumer Affairs Act;

"Civil Court" means the Civil Court (Commercial Section)

established by article 3 of the Civil Court (Establishment of Sections)

Order;

"the Director General" means the Director General (Consumer

Affairs) as defined in the Act;

"operating air carrier" means an air carrier that performs or

intends to perform a flight under a contract with a passenger or on

behalf of another person, legal or natural, having a contract with

that passenger; and

"Regulation 261/2004" means Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of

the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004

establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to

passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or

long delay of flights, and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 295/91

(Text with EEA relevance).

Exclusively for the purposes of these regulations, "passengers"

are classified as "consumers" according to paragraph (iii) of the

definition "consumer" in article 2 of the Act.

(1)

For the purpose of Article 16 of Regulation 261/

2004, the Director General is the designated person responsible for the

monitoring and the investigations concerning the compliance with the

provisions of Regulation 261/2004 with regard to flights from airports

situated in Malta and flights from a third country to airports situated in

Malta.

(2) Except where competences are assigned to the Civil Court by

the Act or by the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority

Act, in discharging his functions under these regulations, the Director

General shall have the same powers as prescribed under the Act,

including the power to investigate and to institute judicial proceedings,

as established by the Act, before the Civil Court.

An operating air carrier that fails to comply with an

obligation imposed on it by Articles 4 to 6, 10, 11 or 14 of Regulation

DENIED BOARDING (COMPENSATION

AND ASSISTANCE TO AIR PASSENGERS)

261/2004 shall be guilty of an infringement punishable by a penalty of

not less than four hundred and seventy euro (€470) and not exceeding

five thousand euro (€5,000)

Provided that in the case of non-compliance with a

compliance order, the Civil Court shall impose a daily penalty of not

less than one hundred and twenty euro (€120) and not more than two

hundred and thirty euro (€230) for each day of non-compliance.

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation,

in proceedings against any operating air carrier for an infringement

under regulation 5, it shall be a defence for that operating air

carrier to show that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all

due diligence to avoid committing such an infringement.

(2) An operating air carrier shall not be entitled to rely on the

defence provided by sub-regulation (1) by reason of its reliance on

information supplied by another operating air carrier, unless it

shows that it was reasonable in all the circumstances for it to have

relied on the information, having regard in particular

(a) to the steps which it took, and those that might

reasonably have been taken, for the purpose of

verifying the information; and

(b) that it had no reason to disbelieve the information.

Any person who feels aggrieved by a judgement, order,

penalty or measure issued by the Civil Court, may appeal before the

Court of Appeal, on any point of law and, or of fact, by means of an

application filed in the registry of the Court of Appeal within twenty

days from the date of the judgment of the Civil Court

Provided that the Court of Appeal shall appoint the case for

hearing by not later than six months from the judgement of the Civil

Court.