Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2016:12
Date: 2016-01-14
Language of the case: Dutch
Subject matter: Transport
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Netherlands

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber), 17 March 2016 Transport — Air transport — Regulation No 261/2004 — Compensation and assistance to passengers — Flight significantly delayed — National bodies responsible for enforcement of the regulation — Requirement to take enforcement action against an air carrier for payment of the compensation due to a passenger — No such requirement) (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 261/2004, Recital 21 and Arts 7(1) and (16)) Article 16 of Regulation No 261/2004 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 No 295/91, must be interpreted as meaning that, where an individual complaint has been made by a passenger to the body designated by each Member State pursuant to Article 16(1) of the regulation following the refusal by an air carrier to pay to the passenger the compensation provided for in Article 7(1) of the regulation, that body is not required to take enforcement action against the carrier with a view to compelling it to pay the compensation. The complaints which any passenger may make to the national body pursuant to Article 16(2) of Regulation No 261/2004 are to be regarded as a form of alert signal intended to contribute to the proper application of the regulation in general, without that body being required to act on such complaints in order to guarantee each individual passenger’s right to obtain compensation. Moreover, the term ‘sanction’ as used in Article 16(3) of Regulation No 261/2004 — that provision being read in conjunction recital 21 of the regulation — must be interpreted as referring to the measures adopted in response to the infringements which the national body identifies in the course of its general monitoring activities provided for in Article 16(1), not to administrative enforcement action to be taken in each individual case. (see paras 31, 32, 38, operative part)