Car rental firm says it should be treated the same as other travel providers
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the man behind the easy empire, had vowed to fight claims that his easyCar rental business is breaking the law by not paying refunds.
The Office of Fair Trading last year states that easyCar should be governed by “distance selling regulations”, which offer customers a seven-day cooling-off period after they make a reservation. Transport services – including airline and train tickets included – are generally exempt from such rules, which were set up to protect the public against “high-pressure” sellers.
However, according to a report in The Independent, Stelios will argue that his company should be treated in the same way as other transport providers. The High Court yesterday gave easyCar permission to appeal to the European Court of Justice, stating that the company had “a pretty good case for reference”.
A spokesman for the company, welcoming the decision, told the newspaper: “We would not have been able to continue offering prices as low as we can if we had to give customers a free opportunity to hand back inventory at a late stage in the sales process.”
