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The Metropolitan Court rightly overturned the fine of 736 thousand euros imposed on the airline Ryanair in August last year – He said the palace. Thus, the company won the lawsuit it filed against the Consumer Protection Bureau.
According to the court’s decision, since Ryanair acted in accordance with the general terms and conditions when imposing the additional profits tax imposed on it on passengers, no deception of consumers occurred, as Consumer Protection claimed. Thus the Curia ends a long discussion.
The whole issue dates back to 2022, when the government imposed an “extra profits tax”, which Ryanair called outright theft in light of the fact that at the time airlines were operating at a loss due to the coronavirus pandemic. In response to the government's threats, the airline transferred the burden to passengers in the form of a special tax of 10 euros, resulting in a fine of 736 thousand euros (about 300 million HUF) from the Consumer Protection Administration. Ryanair legally contested the fine and filed a constitutional complaint against the law – the complaint was dismissed by the Constitutional Court in 2023.
Then, in the summer of 2023, the Metropolitan Court overturned the consumer protection decision, canceling the fine, but the government office appealed, so the case went to court.
The Consumer Protection Department of the Budapest State Office later stated that Ryanair was not penalized by Consumer Protection for passing the special tax, but because the airline claimed to be subject to the new special tax. In this, the Constitutional Court gave the company the right.
In the appeal, consumer protection also tried to argue that they were not given sufficient time to study the decision of the Appeals Body, and despite their request for this reason, the trial was not postponed. But this complaint was also rejected by the court under the current decision.
Although the “additional profits tax” has since been transformed into an “environmental protection tax” by the government, Ryanair has kept the passenger tax rate in ticket prices.
