Brand owners which operate online businesses have been warned to ensure they provide an email address for complaints after Ryanair has been found in breach of EU legislation by failing to offer its customers an online complaints service.
Under the European Ecommerce Directive, companies which sell goods online must offer customers the chance to complain via email. Ryanair currently has no email contact listed on its website, so disgruntled customers are forced to contact it by fax, letter or premium rate telephone number. The company claims an email link will “slow down the process”.
In a letter, Michel Barnier, the Commissioner responsible for the internal market and services, states that the airline’s communication policy is ‘incompatible’ with Article 5 of the EU e-commerce directive which requires firms such as Ryanair to have an email address.
He said: “The ecommerce directive obliges member states to ensure that information society service providers render the details of the service provider, including their electronic mail address, easily, directly and permanently accessible to the recipient of the service and the competent authorities.”
As a result, the Commission said it would be contacting Ireland’s consumer rights authority, the National Consumer Agency, to investigate and ensure that the rules are enforced.
A Ryanair spokesman said: “There is no email address for customers to contact us on. Instead they can put it in writing or contact our reservation helpline. It won’t keep me awake at night because our process has worked for the past 15 to 20 years. We aim to reply to letters and correspondence within seven days of receiving it. If we do implement an email address, then it will probably just slow down the whole process.”
