OFT gets tough over inclusive pricing
The Office of Fair Trading has vowed to bring enforcement proceedings against airlines and tour operators which are still not including taxes and non-optional charges in their advertised prices.
It says some companies, which it refused to name, have failed to meet the deadline of May 10 to make their pricing more transparent.
John Fingleton, OFT chief executive, said: “Markets do not work well if consumers cannot make like-for-like comparison of prices.
“The OFT is committed to ensure that consumers are not misled by advertised prices that bear little relation to actual prices, and that businesses that do provide reliable information to consumers are not disadvantaged.
“We will enforce the law enthusiastically to ensure that consumer choice and competition are not distorted, and that both consumers and business have confidence in the market.”
The OFT issued a warning to holiday and travel suppliers on February 9 and gave them three months to make changes.
Meanwhile, ABTA has issued a reminder to its members that its Code of Conduct requires them to include all fixed non-optional costs, such as taxes, in the basic advertised prices of their holidays.
This week Ryanair began advertising all of its flight prices inclusive of taxes for the first time.
But critics complain that once customers go beyond the lead-in fares advertised on the airline’s home page, taxes and extra charges are not added on until the final stages in the booking process.
The major tour operators, including Thomas Cook and First Choice, have also come under fire for separating out taxes and fuel supplements (see Jeremy Skidmore’s earlier comment).
Other tour operators have changed their pricing policies accordingly. Libra Holidays, for example, has updated all its systems is now fully compliant with ABTA and the OFT requirements.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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