Travel firms warned over summer holiday refunds
Travel companies have been warned they must be ready to refund consumers if foreign holidays are cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic this summer.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it had reminded package holiday firms of their legal obligations.
In 2020, cancelled trips resulted in 23,000 complaints to the competition watchdog.
The CMA said it had taken action against five big firms which had given more than £200m in refunds.
These included Tui, which the watchdog said had now formally committed to giving clearer information about refunds upfront.
The others were Teletext, LoveHolidays, Lastminute.com and Virgin Holidays.
"We're calling on package holiday companies to make the refund process less hassle in the future," said CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli.
"We expect all firms to give clear cancellation options and will consider appropriate steps if we see companies breaking the law by refusing or delaying refunds this summer."
Covid uncertainty
Under package holiday rules, cancelled holidays must be refunded within 14 days and customers must be offered a refund, not just a credit note.
The UK government has said people can travel abroad again from 17 May, but holidays to most destinations require a period of quarantine when holidaymakers return home.
Portugal is the main holiday destination currently on the "green list", but the travel industry is worried that countries could be added or withdrawn at short notice.
On Wednesday, online travel agent On The Beach said it had stopped selling all holidays for this summer because of Covid uncertainty.
Chief executive Simon Cooper told the BBC that many would-be holidaymakers had been "jaded by the experience" of summer 2020, when many holidays that had been booked failed to take place because of shifting travel restrictions.
Mr Cooper added that if On The Beach did go ahead with summer bookings, its profits risked being outweighed by "administrative costs and loss of goodwill".
