AG Frankfurt; 2018-10-31; 31 C 2052/18 (15)
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:DE:AGFFM:2018:1031.31C2052.18.15.00
Date: 2018-10-31
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Germany

82018DE1031(53)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
A private person (hereinafter ‘the plaintiff’) filed an action against an operating air carrier (hereinafter ‘the defendant’) seeking compensation due to a cancelled flight.
The plaintiff booked, together with another person, a flight with the defendant from Frankfurt am Main to Marseille, where they had booked accommodation. The defendant cancelled the flight due to technical reasons shortly before the take off.
The plaintiff sought a refund of 2 x EUR 250 for the flight and EUR 307.57 for the cancelled accommodation.
The defendant claimed that the flight was just delayed by a little more than two hours due to technical reasons. This, however, did not lead to the cancellation of the flight. The problem consisted in a system failure at Eurocontrol and the stored flight plans went missing. This was the cause of huge air traffic congestion.
The Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main (hereinafter ‘the Court of First Instance’) held international jurisdiction under Article 7(1)(b) of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (1). Frankfurt am Main was to be seen as the planned place of performance.
The action was found justified.
The defendant could not invoke Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (2) to be released from its obligation to provide compensation. The defective control lamp was to be seen as a defect of material or service work lying within the operational sphere of the defendant. The system failure with Eurocontrol was not an obstacle for carrying out a later flight on the same date.
The plaintiff was entitled to receive compensation also for the cancelled hotel accommodation as the plaintiff and his co-traveller were objectively not able to rebook a new flight as all available seats had been allocated to other passengers.
The Court of First Instance ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff an amount of EUR 807.57 including interest.
(1) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
(2) 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.