Dutch Law Firm To File Test Lawsuit Against Ryanair

Dublin, Ireland (AHN) - EUClaim, a Dutch law firm which specializes in class suits against air carriers, will file a lawsuit against Ryanair over abuse of extraordinary circumstances as excuse to escape payments to bumped off passengers.

The extraordinary circumstances are usually attributed to harsh weather conditions or technical problems, often cited as reasons to reject their claims for compensation by Ryainair, which reported last month its first annual loss in two decades.

The law firm plans to challenge Ryanair's continued used of those reasons by utilizing flight analysis and weather data to disprove the airline's abuse of the reasons.

EU laws mandate that air passengers must be compensated up to $837 (476 pound) each if their flight is cancelled. But airlines attempt to circumvent the rules by claiming extraordinary circumstances beyond their control to excuse them from paying the claim.

A Ryanair spokesman belied EUclaim's charge. "Ryanair customer service only deals with passenger complaints made directly by passengers in writing. We will never deal with greedy, ambulance chasing organizations who promote a compensation culture where people claim for anything and everything," the spokesman was quoted by the U.K. Telegraph.

The Dutch law firm is filing the case for 40 passengers, but a ruling in favor of the bumped off passengers may lead to more lawsuits for air carriers which employ the same tactics as Ryanair to avoid compensating passengers when their flights are cancelled.