The European Court of Justice confirms the right to partial refund of the train ticket in case of delay, even if this latter is caused by force majeure.
The European Regulation on railway passengers rights (1371/2007) foresee the partial refund of the ticket in case of a delay of one hour or more. 25% of the price ticket is given for a delay between one hour and 119 minutes; 50% of the price ticket is given for a delay of over 120 minutes. The Regulation does not foresee any exception to the refund right.
The Court remarked that uniform rules – that exonerate the carrier from the refund obligation in case of force majeure- concern only the passengers right to have a refund of the damage caused by the delay or the cancellation. On the contrary, the refund foreseen by the Regulation – calculated according to the ticket price- aims at compensating the price paid by the passenger as the equivalent for a service which has not been provided as it should have.
