THE Court of Appeal has dismissed the Civil Aviation Authority’s case against a judicial decision in January which led it to withdraw a guidance note to the trade.
The ruling means agents can dynamically package holidays without an ATOL. The CAA’s guidance had suggested agents selling dynamically packaged holidays required an ATOL and warned it would prosecute those who did not.
ABTA challenged the CAA in the High Court and won, expressing relief at the outcome of the appeal on Tuesday. Chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “This is significant news for our members and justifies the time spent challenging the CAA’s view of what constitutes a package.”
In a statement, the CAA welcomed the court’s “clear judgement”.
However, the court will not make a final order until receiving written submissions from both parties next week. A CAA spokesman said: “We will be submitting a response to various issues raised in the ruling that perhaps we do not agree with.”
It promised a further statement once the Court of Appeal has issued a final order.
The CAA pointed out the guidance note had been withdrawn since January following the earlier judgement. Its note had warned: “The CAA will be carrying out increased monitoring of travel agents, and firms should be aware that it is the policy to prosecute in cases where firms have… failed to obtain a licence.”
In his conclusion, Lord Justice Hardwick described the objective of the guidance as admirable, but said: “I am satisfied the guidance note was misleading or potentially misleading.”
He ruled that, for the purpose of the ATOL regulations, agents should not be deemed as selling package holidays “where flight accommodation is made available as one of a number of services sold or offered for sale separately (albeit at the same time)”.
ABTA said it would seek costs from the CAA.