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Europe Seeks Update of Law on Fliers’ Rights

March 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

But the proposal is not completely pro-passenger. As announced in Brussels by the European Union transport commissioner, Siim Kallas, it would also significantly roll back airlines’ obligations to passengers who wind up stranded for extended periods because of extraordinary events like the Icelandic volcano eruption three years ago that grounded more than 100,000 flights across Europe.

The proposal, which would require approval by a majority of the Union’s 27 member countries and the European Parliament, aims to address common airline practices that remain a regular source of frustration to travelers. Helen Kearns, a Commission spokeswoman, said that if adopted, the new rules probably would enter force before the end of 2015.

Eight years after the E.U. first introduced its far-reaching package of passenger rights legislation, the law is still not well understood by customers, which critics say leads to frequent abuses by airlines.

“It is very important that passenger rights do not just exist on paper,” Mr. Kallas said in a statement. “We all need to be able to rely on them when it matters most — when things go wrong.”

The European Union regulation applies to all carriers that take off from an airport in one of the Union’s member states, regardless of their nationality. The rules do not apply to non-European airlines on flights that originate outside the European Union.

Among the proposed changes is a rule obliging airlines to inform passengers about the nature of any flight disruption no later than 30 minutes after the scheduled departure time. Passengers who are delayed by two hours or more would be entitled to care and assistance at the airport, including meals and refreshments, regardless of the distance of their flight. After five hours, passengers would have the right to renounce the flight and have their ticket price reimbursed.

In the event of a flight that has already boarded and is delayed by more than one hour on the tarmac, passengers would have the right to free drinking water, access to toilets and medical assistance. Should the tarmac delay extend to five hours, passengers would have the right to cancel their ticket and get off the plane.

The new proposal also clarifies the rights of passengers who miss a connecting flight because of a delay. Travelers would be entitled to care and assistance after two hours of waiting at their connecting airport and financial compensation if their arrival was delayed by more than five hours on any flight of less than 3,500 kilometers, or about 2,175 miles.

For flights of up to 6,000 kilometers, the right to compensation would kick in after nine hours, while for longer flights the deadline would be 12 hours.

Airlines would also be compelled to re-route passengers on another airline — or an alternative transport mode — if they are unable to find an alternate route on their own services within 12 hours of the original departure time.

Rules for handling passengers’ complaints would also be tightened. Airlines would be obliged to establish clear complaint procedures and systems and to acknowledge complaints within a week of receipt. A deadline of two months would be set for airlines to formally reply.

“Complaints about air travel amount to 80 percent within the transport sector, which shows the extent of the problem in Europe,” Monique Goyens, director general of the Brussels-based consumer organization BEUC, said in a statement. “We hope this prompts a much-needed upsurge in airlines’ respect for passenger rights.”

Airline groups also cautiously welcomed the proposal. Viktoria Vajnai, a spokeswoman for the Association of European Airlines, in Brussels, described it as “a step in the right direction” for both airlines and passengers.

“We believe that a comprehensive and coherent regulation will benefit not only passengers but the whole aviation industry,” Ms. Vajnai said.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/business/global/europe-seeks-update-of-law-on-fliers-rights.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

O.E.C.D. Calls on Members to Defend Internet Freedoms

December 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

PARIS — As a rising tide of digital dissent raises alarms in many capitals around the world, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday called on member countries to “promote and protect the global free flow of information” online.

The O.E.C.D.
, a group of 34 developed countries, urged policy makers to support investment in digital networks and to take a light touch on regulation, saying this was essential for promoting economic growth via the Internet.

“It’s really a milestone in terms of making a statement about openness,” said Karen Kornbluh, the U.S. ambassador to the O.E.C.D. “You can’t really get the innovation you need in terms of creating jobs unless we work together to protect the openness of the Internet.”

The approval of the recommendations by the O.E.C.D. council builds on a communiqué issued at a meeting in June, when the broad outlines of the policy were drawn up. The guidelines are not binding, but are intended to work through the power of persuasion . Also, the Internet recommendations will from now on be included among the criteria for assessing candidates for membership in the O.E.C.D., which is based in Paris.

While the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and other movements have shown the potential of the Internet for organizing political protest, there has also been a backlash, with a number of governments stepping up their efforts to crack down on free speech in the digital sphere.

China, which has long blocked access to Web sites deemed to be undesirable, said recently that it would step up monitoring of social media, messaging services and other forums in an effort to crack down on the publishing of “harmful information.” India has asked Internet companies and social media sites to prescreen user contributions to remove disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content, according to Internet company executives.

In Russia there were reports of a crackdown on Web-borne dissent before and after parliamentary elections this month. Russia was one of a number of countries that blocked the adoption of a U.S.-backed declaration of online freedoms
this month at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Russian officials, along with those of some developing countries, have made no secret of their desire to regulate the Internet at an international level, under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency. The O.E.C.D document, by contrast, endorses the existing, dispersed model of Internet governance, under which governments, business organizations and groups representing Internet users all have a say.

The move by the O.E.C.D. on Tuesday “validates, defends and promotes an Internet model that is not government led, but led by the technical community and the private sector,” said Markus Kummer, vice president for public policy at the Internet Society
, whose members include technology companies and educational institutions. “I think it is timely to remember some basic cornerstones, when there is increased pressure on governments to get involved in a more hands-on way.”

Some O.E.C.D. members’ policies have also come under scrutiny, especially measures aimed at cracking down on unauthorized sharing of digital music and other media. Campaigners for an open Internet have criticized the French approach to fighting piracy, which includes the threat of disconnecting persistent violators’ Internet connections.

In the United States, meanwhile, Internet companies like Google are campaigning against congressional proposals that could require them to block links to Web sites accused of facilitating piracy.

The music and movie industries say tougher action is needed to stop piracy. But opponents of the measures say they could be used to stifle legitimate political speech, not just copyright theft.

Among other things, the O.E.C.D. recommendation urges policy makers to “limit Internet intermediary liability” — that is, to shield Internet companies from responsibility for the content that they carry. Under existing U.S. laws, Internet companies have a so-called safe harbor if they take down copyright violations when they are informed of them.

“Congress is proposing solutions that are inconsistent with the O.E.C.D. principles,” said Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology
in Washington.

President Barack Obama has not taken a position on the bills, but members of his administration have been outspoken in their defense of free speech on the Internet.

“The right to express one’s views, practice one’s faith, peacefully assemble with others to pursue political or social change — these are all rights to which all human beings are entitled, whether they choose to exercise them in a city square or an Internet chat room,” the U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, said last week at an Internet conference in the Netherlands. “And just as we have worked together since the last century to secure these rights in the material world, we must work together in this century to secure them in cyberspace.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/technology/oecd-calls-on-members-to-defend-internet-freedoms.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

News Analysis: News Analysis: Greece Awaits Votes on Rescue Package

September 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It’s not clear whether the global markets will give them that much time. Investors will be watching a series of crucial votes by European parliaments due this week on an earlier package aimed at preventing a default by Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Sensing urgency from the markets and keenly aware of the potential consequences of a rejection of that plan by the German Parliament when it votes on Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel drew parallels on Sunday between the risk of a Greek default now and the broader chaos in the financial system that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. “We are doing it for ourselves,” she said in a radio interview on Sunday night aimed at persuading a skeptical German audience that setting aside hundreds of billions of euros to prop up shaky neighbors made sense. “Otherwise, the stability of the euro would be in danger.”

“We can only take steps that we can really control,” she said. If a Greek default started a fresh financial crisis, “then we politicians will be held responsible.”

All 17 member countries of the euro bloc must approve the strengthening of the rescue package, known as the European Financial Stability Facility, with votes set on Tuesday in Slovenia, Finland on Wednesday and Germany on Thursday. So far, only six countries have signed off, but European leaders say the process should be completed by mid-October.

Only after that do they seem likely to come up with a broader rescue package aimed at relieving the anxiety that has driven markets lower in recent weeks. The markets may not wait that long.

Indeed, for political leaders like Mrs. Merkel, the problem now is that investors have already concluded that the 440 billion euro bailout fund, the expansion of which is being voted on this week, might not be enough to stop the contagion from spreading. On Friday, the yield on two-year Greek notes rose to 69.7 percent, suggesting that investors considered a default all but inevitable.

When the initial expansion of the bailout fund was agreed to in July, worries centered on three smaller countries on the periphery of Europe — Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Since then, however, fears have multiplied about the ability of Spain and Italy, the third-largest economy in the euro zone, to keep borrowing heavily, creating doubts about pools of debt from countries that right now are considered “too big to bail.”

The worry is that a default by Athens would threaten these and other sovereign borrowers, as well as banks in France and Germany that hold tens of billions of euros in Greek debt. That, in turn, has helped push shares of American banks, which are intertwined with their European counterparts, sharply lower, dragging down the broader market.

“The next three weeks are absolutely critical, and they can still stabilize the markets, but I wouldn’t tell my clients to put money to work until we see it,” said Rebecca Patterson, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “As we stand right now, European policy makers have gotten well behind the curve. It’s not about the periphery anymore; it’s about the core, too.”

A fresh indicator of market confidence in European borrowers will come as Italy sells billions of euros in bonds this week, culminating on Thursday. Weak demand at an auction on Sept. 13 sparked global worries about the safety of Italian debt, which stands at a whopping $2.3 trillion, making Italy one of the world’s largest borrowers.

What is more, Italy’s debt load equals 120 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. In Europe, only Greece is in worse shape, with debt totaling roughly 150 percent of G.D.P.

In addition, the Greek Parliament must vote this week on a recently proposed property tax increase that is seen as a test of whether the country will stick to past promises to tighten its belt.

“If that doesn’t go through and Greece can’t show it can move forward, it will be very difficult for anyone to give them more aid,” Ms. Patterson said. Greece is also trying to show its austerity program is enough to qualify for an aid payment due in October.

Last week, anxiety about Europe led to the worst week for the Dow Jones industrial average since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, and as was the case then, it seems events are moving faster than political leaders, further narrowing their options.

Landon Thomas Jr. and Jack Ewing contributed reporting.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=fa91ad73abc974ddca396ff67ca4d7a2

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Average Price for U.S. Gas Falls to $3.63

June 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The price covers the two-week period that ended Friday and is derived from a survey of about 2,500 filling stations nationwide by Trilby Lundberg. She said that prices had dropped 37.2 cents a gallon since they hit almost $4 a gallon on average on May 8.

“The rate of decline was reduced in the latest two weeks, but we have yet to see the impact of the government sale of crude,” Ms. Lundberg said Sunday.

Prices have fallen after member countries of the International Energy Agency said last week they would release 60 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles and on concern that the United States and European economies are weakening.

“If we suppose that crude oil prices fall another few dollars, then this could accelerate the drop another 20 cents” for gasoline, Ms. Lundberg said. “Poor economic news continues to be a factor in petroleum prices for crude and gasoline, with or without putting government oil up for bid.”

Separately, AAA reported this weekend that the number of Americans traveling by automobile during the Independence Day holiday would fall 3 percent to 32.8 million, from 33.7 million a year earlier.

Concern that the global economic recovery is sputtering was reflected in remarks by the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, that the United States recovery was proceeding “somewhat more slowly” than projected, prompting the Fed to maintain record monetary stimulus.

The Energy Department reported last week that gasoline stockpiles in the United States in the week that ended June 17 fell 464,000 barrels to 214.6 million. Wholesale demand fell 0.5 percent to 9.32 million barrels a day.

The highest price among cities surveyed in the 48 contiguous states on June 10 was in Chicago, at $4.06 a gallon. The lowest price, $3.32, was in Jackson, Miss., the Lundberg Survey said.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=850b6d6a852c7fbeddd696438b71e917

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