UK’s CMA Warns Lastminute.com Of Legal Action Over Vacation Refunds

Switzerland-headquartered global online travel booking platform Lastminute.com could be facing legal action from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over missing the refund deadline for canceled vacations.

The CMA ruled that Lastminute.com had until the end of January to refund people whose trips were canceled due to the worldwide pandemic. The travel booking platform was investigated by the CMA after violating refund regulations, the competition watchdog said in a Friday (Feb. 12) press release.

Lastminute.com had owed in excess of 7 million pounds in refunds to over 9,000 people for holidays canceled on or before  Dec. 2. The company committed to refund the money by Jan. 31. Although it repaid the majority of people, the platform still owes over 1 million pounds to 2,600 customers.

The company should have refunded all entitled customers within two weeks of vacations being canceled, the CMA said. Lastminute.com also breached regulations for reportedly telling some customers to seek refunds directly from airlines for the cost of their flight.

“It is wholly unacceptable that thousands of Lastminute.com customers are still waiting for full refunds for package holidays despite the commitments the company signed with us,” said Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA.

“We take breaches of commitments extremely seriously. If Lastminute.com does not comply with the law and pay people their outstanding refunds quickly, we will take the company to court,” he added.

The CMA told Lastminute.com that it will face court action if it doesn’t refund the rest of the customers in full within 14 days.

Airbnb pledged in March to refund people whose vacations were cut short or canceled due to the coronavirus, but complaints have mounted that money wasn’t returned as promised. Instead, people were offered travel credits unless they could provide particular documentation to prove the coronavirus caused the cancelation.

United Airlines is offering travelers refunds to the original form of payment for trips affected by a schedule change of at least two hours. Virgin Atlantic told customers they would have to wait up to four months for refunds on canceled flights.