Wizz Air, Antitrust fine of €500,000 on 'All You Can Fly' subscription

An 'unlimited' subscription to fly at a fixed fare on all international routes. This is the promise with which Wizz Air Hungary Ltd launched its annual 'Wizz All You Can Fly' service, which has now come under the scanner of the Competition and Market Authority. The Antitrust Authority has ascertained a violation of the Consumer Code rules on unfair commercial practices and unfair terms, and has fined the low-cost airline EUR 500,000. The investigation was carried out by the special antitrust unit of the Guardia di Finanza, under the command of General Carlo Levanti.

The product at the centre of the proceedings is a subscription allowing subscribers to fly at a fixed fare on all international routes operated by the carrier, against payment of EUR 599 (reduced to EUR 499 in the initial phase of the promotion). In the commercial communication, the service was presented as a 'no limits' subscription, a formula that recalls the idea of unlimited flights and freedom of booking. But, according to the Authority, behind this promise were hidden missing information, ambiguities and significant constraints.

The Agcm found that, in its promotional campaigns, Wizz Air presented the service as an unlimited subscription, omitting adequate and timely information on the limitations imposed in order to use it. The pre-contractual information made available to consumers on the characteristics of the subscription was deficient and ambiguous, precisely where it should have been clearer: on the time windows for booking individual flights, on the number and type of seats available to subscribers on each flight, and on further limitations applicable to the use of the service. In other words, the consumer attracted by the idea of flying at a fixed fare did not really have all the elements to understand how - and how much - he could use the 'Wizz All You Can Fly' subscription.

But the contestation front does not stop at the promotional phase alone. The Antitrust Authority also scrutinised the general terms and conditions of the contract, in their original version, and found certain clauses regulating the relationship between Wizz Air and subscribers to be vexatious. In these clauses, the company gave itself the possibility of modifying the terms and conditions of the service or even discontinuing it altogether, without providing specific justified reasons and without ensuring adequate protection for consumers. In fact, the carrier reserved for itself a very broad power to change the rules when the service was already active, while the guarantees for those who had paid for the subscription were limited.

Not only that. The same clauses hindered the right to reimbursement on a pro rata basis of the price paid and limited the right of withdrawal in the event of suspension or termination of the service, even if the airport concerned was the one chosen by the consumer as his preferred hub. In the Authority's reading, this contractual arrangement produced a significant imbalance of rights and obligations for subscribers: on the one hand a company able to modify or block the service, on the other hand consumers with reduced margins of withdrawal, reimbursement and economic protection.