These days, Wizz Air is in the spotlight for several reasons. On the one hand, the company was criticized for the cancellation of flights and the inconvenience suffered by Italian passengers stranded in Madeira, on the other there was a lot of enthusiasm (as well as controversy) for the “all you can fly” proposal sold out. This allowed, by paying 499 euros, to be able to fly without limits (but in reality with many limitations and additional costs) for a year in all the company’s international destinations.
Now, however, the Hungarian low cost company has intervenedCompetition and Market Guarantor Authority (AGCM) which required it to review and correct some commercial practices deemed unfair, in particular those linked to the transparency of check-in costs and extra insurance that can be added during the booking process.
The AGCM highlighted how Wizz Air was not transparent enough on some information and costs that appeared during online booking. In particular, the company website only partially indicated the conditions for free online check-in, omitting crucial information. Passengers were informed that free online check-in was only available in the 24 hours before departure, without specifying that this could be done up to 3 hours before the flight.
The real problem, however, lay in the lack of transparency of the cost of 40 euros for check-in at the airport, a cost that was only revealed through a series of hidden steps between the site’s pages. To access this information, consumers had to exit the booking process and navigate to less visible pages, making it difficult to understand the actual amount of additional costs.
The Antitrust also accused Wizz Air of unclear practices regarding insurance policies. When booking, the company offered insurance that appeared, at first glance, to have a cost. Only at the end of the purchasing process, however, did consumers realize that the price indicated actually had to be multiplied by the number of passengers and days of coverage, with a significant increase compared to what was initially estimated.
In this case, the Antitrust did not sanction the company given that, in the face of complaints, Wizz Air promised to improve the transparency of information for both check-in and insurance. The low-cost company also announced a refund program for all those consumers who, between 2019 and 2023, suffered charges for checking in at the airport due to malfunctions during the online check-in phase.
To recap, these are the decisions taken by the Antitrust against Wizz Air:
The Antitrust proceeding may be reopened automatically if Wizz Air does not respect its commitments or if there are changes in the factual conditions with respect to the elements on which the decision is based.
In case of non-compliance with commitments, the Antitrust may apply a pecuniary administrative sanction ranging from 10,000 to 10,000,000 euros. Furthermore, in cases of repeated non-compliance, the suspension of business activity may be ordered for a maximum of thirty days.