Source: European Parliament
1. The Commission is aware and concerned about airline charges for changing misspelled names on tickets and that passengers are often penalised for such spelling errors by high administrative fees. However, airlines should be allowed to charge for passengers’ names changes when the service is provided to another passenger.
2. The Commission is not aware of similar situations in the other modes of transport.
3. To address this matter, the Commission included in its 2013 proposal[1], amending Regulation (EC) No 261/2004[2], specific provisions requiring airlines to correct for free spelling mistakes in passenger names, unless a correction implies a change of time, date, itinerary or passenger.
As to the legislative negotiations on the 2013 proposal, the European Parliament adopted its position in 2014 and confirmed it in 2019 and 2024, while the Council resumed its discussions in January 2025, under the Polish Presidency, with the aim to have a General Approach in June 2025.
Airline charges are usually stipulated in the relevant terms and conditions of carriage, which must comply with the Unfair Contract Terms Directive 93/13/EEC[3].
This directive provides that a contractual term not being individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirements of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer.
Such unfair terms are not binding on consumers. Also, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC[4] prohibits misleading practices, such as omission of material information that negatively affect consumer transactional decisions. The competent national authorities and courts are responsible to enforce national law transposing these provisions.