09 August 2007 OFT 'committed to abolishing misleading holiday pricing'
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has commented that it is committed to the abolition of misleading holiday prices in the travel industry, noting that it has taken action against 13 airlines presenting such prices on their websites.
It reports that prior to its intervention, these websites were not including all fixed, non-optional costs on their sites, such as airport tax.
Consequently, 11 of the 13 airlines have changed their sites, with Aer Lingus and Ryanair altering their homepage and promising changes their booking procedures when technical issues are resolved.
Sean Williams, executive director of the OFT, said: "Misleading pricing not only undermines consumer confidence but also distorts competition and we will enforce the law enthusiastically where we find that consumers have been misled."
He added that the organisation will continue to take efforts to ensure that consumers are not mislead by headline prices that are dissimilar to those actually charged at the point of purchase.
In May 2007, the OFT reported that the holiday market cannot operate adequately if consumers are not able to make like-for-like comparisons of prices.
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