Judge in Spain rules against Ryanair for hand luggage surcharge
The Irish low-cost airline must reimburse 66 euros plus interest to the plaintiff, a man from Granada who now lives in Poland
Pablo Bustinduy, Spain's Minister for Consumer Affairs, and Michael O'Leary, group CEO of Ryanair, are at loggerheads over, among other things, the Irish company's decision to charge its customers for carry-on hand luggage, a practice that the Spanish government considers illegal.
The crisis reached boiling point in 2024, when Bustinduy's ministry resolved to impose multi-million-euro fines on several airlines that penalised passengers for carrying a cabin bag. Ryanair received the heaviest penalty: a whopping 107 million euros.
Michael O'Leary, who went so far as to call Bustinduy a "crazy communist", has since managed to curry favour with the European Commission, which has just announced the opening of infringement proceedings against Spain for the financial penalties it inflicted on these airlines.
But now a Granada native, originally from the town of Guadahortuna, but now residing in Poland, has now entered this battle of giants and has managed to outdo Ryanair. A retelling of the biblical story of the battle between David and the giant Goliath. Well, actually, Goliath (Ryanair) did not even show up and was declared in default.
It all began in August 2024...
José Antonio is the name of the passenger who has defeated Ryanair by getting Granada's Commercial Court number 2 to order the airline to refund him the 66 euros, plus applicable interest, that he was charged for boarding a plane with a carry-on bag. This occurred on 9 August 2024, when the plaintiff was about to board his flight from Poland to Malaga.
After arriving home, he went to court to take legal action against Ryanair and produced his boarding pass and the charge applied for his hand luggage as documentary evidence. The unusual lawsuit was served.
European Court of Justice
Well, he will get back the 66 euros (plus interest) he was forced to pay last year. In a ruling that cannot be appealed, the Granada court hearing the case reviewed both national and international regulations on this topic and concluded that they do not regulate "the price tariff in relation to baggage", the ruling states.
Furthermore, it recalled the content of a decision of the European Court of Justice (CJEU in Spanish, the supreme court in matters of EU law) which ruled that an unchecked bag "is an indispensable element of air transport and, therefore, the airline is obliged to transport it without being able to demand any kind of supplement".
The Granada court repeated the wording from the CJEU itself, which states that "it should be considered carry-on baggage provided that it meets reasonable requirements regarding its weight and dimensions and complies with the applicable safety requirements".
In this regard, the ruling states that José Ángel met all these requirements and the airline "was not authorised" to charge him for the suitcase he was carrying with him when he boarded the plane to take his seat.
Ryanair will have to pay, in addition to the 66 euros for the unauthorised hand luggage surcharge, all costs incurred for these court proceedings.
