Still not enough? Ryanair fined another EUR 530,000 in Hungary

On 21 April, we reported that the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has to pay a huge fine to the Hungarian state. The Constitutional Court ruled that the airline has to pay HUF 300 million (EUR 794,000) as customer protection for passing the departure tax onto its passengers. Now, another fine of HUF 200 million (EUR 527,000) was imposed on Ryanair by the Hungarian state.

A HUF 200 million fine…

Ryanair must pay the HUF 200 million consumer protection fine imposed in April 2020. This comes after the court of appeal rejected the airline’s appeal against the decision, the Government Office of the Capital told MTI on Friday.

In the statement, it was recalled that the Irish low-cost airline did not comply with its obligation to provide information during the delay of its Budapest-Gran Canaria flight on 18 February 2020. Thus, it committed an unfair commercial practice, for which the Government Office of the Capital imposed a fine of HUF 200 million, 24.hu reports.

…after a HUF 300 million fine

In June 2022, the Government Office of the Capital launched an investigation against the airline in another case. Ryanair passed on to passengers the excess profit tax (“departure tax”) imposed by the government last year. The consumer protection authority found that the company had deceived consumers through unfair commercial practices. Therefore, it imposed a HUF 300 million consumer protection fine.

On 5 April, the Ministry of Justice announced that, following the Metropolitan Court of Budapest, the Metropolitan Court of Appeal had also rejected Ryanair’s application for immediate legal protection. This means that the airline will have to pay the HUF 300 million fine.

A harshly-worded statement from Ryanair

Ryanair issued a statement a day after the Constitutional Court rejected its constitutional complaint against the introduction of an excess profits tax on the airline, which it had filed in July last year. In response to the rejection, Ryanair said “the decision is of no particular significance as the government has already replaced the excess profit tax with another tax, the eco-tax.”

According to the airline, the government’s attempt is “to disguise the theft as an eco-tax, when it is just an excessive tax”. They also noted that they already pay millions of euros each year under the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme. That covers emissions from flights to and from Hungary as well, 24.hu writes.