Thomas Cook, Going Places and a host of other travel agencies could face criminal prosecution and fines of £5,000 each for overcharging customers on airport tax charges.
Trading standards officers are investigated the high-street agencies for allegedly increasing fixed tax charges on flights.
Trading standards officer Bruce Treloar said: “If agencies are charging consumers £15 tax when the standard price is £10 that is a misleading price under the Consumer Protection Act, and we will look into it. Quoting misleading prices is a criminal matter.”
An investigation conducted by a national newspaper revealed that travel agencies are charging different levels of tax for the same flight to the same destination on the same date.
For example, the tax to Australia should be £40.40, but Thomas Cook’s Flights Direct quoted £42.
The worst offender was Going Places which quoted £60 tax on the flight – £20 more than the fixed rate.
The agencies have defended the charges, arguing that airport taxes cannot be fixed absolutely because of daily currency fluctuations.
A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said: “Local taxes, levies and exchange rates may change at any point, so in order to achieve consistency and ensure a prompt service, Thomas Cook Flights Direct fixes the tax in sterling on a quarterly basis for their specially negotiated fares.”
A Going Places spokeswoman said it quoted £60 because the flight to Australia was via Los Angeles.
An ABTA spokeswoman accepted the agencies’ explanation that charges tend to vary because of exchange rates, and said the association would not be investigating them. “We would be concerned about anything that would be misleading, but we will not be duplicating the work of the trading standards office,” she said.
n See Comment, page 6
TABLE: High price: agencies argue that price fluctuation is due to the varying levels of the exchange rate