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The Budapest Committee of the Safe Society Foundation, which also deals with consumer protection regulation, has denounced Ryanair for displaying misleading messages to Hungarian consumers on its website, which according to the Foundation, gives the false impression that the increase in charges for consumers is not the company’s own business decision and that the extra charge is being imposed on the company.
Ryanair claims that Hungary has imposed an extra profit tax on airlines, which consumers would be obliged to pay. However, the Safe Society Foundation argues that the Hungarian tax, which offsets the economic impact of the war, is a burden on ground handling companies and can only be an indirect cost for Ryanair. Ryanair is well aware of this because the Hungarian tax is not a novelty at all, but a long-established type of tax in many European countries, which Hungary has so far refrained from collecting, according to the Foundation’s statement.
They believe that Ryanair is engaging in unfair commercial practices by creating the false impression on its website that the increase in charges to consumers is not Ryanair’s own business decision and that the extra charge is being forced on Ryanair.
On Monday, the Safe Society Foundation filed a public interest report with the consumer protection authority, calling for an investigation into the offensive Ryanair notices.
Hungarian and EU consumer protection rules prohibit all airlines from communicating the indirect pass-through of their own costs to consumers as if it were a tax on consumers, the statement says.
Source: National Press Service (OS)
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