ACTA filed a submission with the Consumer Measures Committee (CMC) on airline fare advertising strongly supporting the CMC work to ensure a coordinated approach to achieve the highest level of protection…
ACTA filed a submission with the Consumer Measures Committee (CMC) on airline fare advertising strongly supporting the CMC work to ensure a coordinated approach to achieve the highest level of protection to all Canadian travel consumers.
Such standard requirements would also maintain a fair competitive landscape for various industry participants (airlines, tour operators and travel agencies) whether they operate in a regulated provincial environment or not; whether they advertise nationally or not.
In this context, ACTA is proposing the following position:
Fares advertised by airlines shall be the total cost of the service provided by the carrier, that is, the amount the customer will be required to pay for travel between departure point and destination, including all fees, levies, service charges and other added charges considered as part and parcel of the carrier`s costs. The aforementioned fees and surcharges may be listed in the advertising copy to provide additional and helpful information to consumers. Applicable sales taxes shall also be included in the total cost and an explicit statement to that effect shall be included in the body of the ad. Furthermore, mandatory round trip tickets should be advertised as such and not as one-way fares.
The trade association believes it is imperative that if such regulations are to be adopted, they must be adopted in every jurisdiction simultaneously and cover all domestic or foreign airline fare advertising everywhere in Canada.
It goes without saying that any regulation involving airline fare advertising adopted at the federal level should result in the adoption of matching requirements at the provincial level to cover all travel service providers` advertising their travel products and services.
“Should the federal government fail to implement such countrywide regulations, ACTA will be compelled to advocate a different position with provincial authorities, as it is doing with the Ontario Government, with a view to allowing its members, travel retailers, to compete on an equal footing with airlines” concluded Marc-Andre Charlebois, President and CEO.
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