General Terms and Conditions and Cancellation Policy

​1. Subject matter of the Contract, and Services

1.1
Air compensation shall take over the exclusively performance-based enforcement of any claims for compensation (where applicable also further claims) against airlines that you may be entitled to under the EU’s Air Passenger Rights Regulation No. 261/2004 or the British Air Passenger Rights and Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Claim’) in accordance with the following provisions.

For the purpose of enforcing your Claim, after we have agreed to take over the enforcement of your claims for compensation, you shall either irrevocably assign your Claim to us on trust and authorise us to enforce the Claim under your name (hereinafter referred to as ‘Assignment Process’) or authorise us to enforce the Claim in and under your name (hereinafter referred to as ‘Authorisation Process’).

1.2
Air compensation shall seek to enforce the Claim against the airline out of court and shall obtain the relevant information required for this purpose (including information from the airline).

1.3
Air compensation’s endeavours to enforce the Claim are insufficient, we may engage a contract lawyer to enforce the Claim (cf. para. 6). We shall bear the costs for the activities of the contract attorney engaged by us if our efforts are unsuccessful (cf. para. 6.4).

1.4
The presentation of the services provided by us on our website (or other pages) — particularly the compensation calculator — shall not constitute a binding offer for the conclusion of a contract.

2. Conclusion of Contract, Specifications

2.1
You are engaging our services after having gone through the compensation calculator (hereinafter referred to as ‘Order Process’).

By clicking on the corresponding order button, you are submitting a binding offer for the conclusion of a remunerated representation agreement pertaining to the enforcement of the Claim, including any incidental claims. We accept your offer either via our explicit declaration (e.g., by email) or via the enforcement of the compensation claim against the airline.

2.2
The data requested in the Order Process shall be submitted fully and correctly and shall be amended without delay if the data provided change after registration or if you notice that you have submitted incorrect data. This applies in particular to the data you provide with respect to your flight details, address, phone number, and email address.

3. Fees

3.1
You shall pay fees to air compensation in the amount of the agreed percentage of the enforced Claim (hereinafter referred to as ‘Fees’) plus statutory VAT. A prerequisite for the accrual and maturity of the fee is that the Claim is successfully enforced.

3.2
The amount of the Fee shall be determined by whether the involvement of our contract lawyers is necessary to enforce the claim. If we succeed in enforcing your claim without involving our contract lawyers, we will charge you a lower fee. Only if our out-of-court enforcement efforts have been completely or partially unsuccessful will we involve our contract lawyers. The relevant percentage (with/without involvement of the contract lawyers) for the calculation of the remuneration is specified in the order process.

The calculation of the Fees is based on all payments made by the airline after the service provider has sent its payment request, with the exception of any accrued interest on default on the claim, which is owed in full to air compensation. If, with your consent, the claim is settled in kind rather than in cash (e.g., flight vouchers), unless agreed otherwise, we shall be entitled to a corresponding commission in cash based on the value of the payment in kind. We shall also be entitled to Fees once the airline has made payments to you (e.g., in the form of a cheque).

3.3
Should air compensation only enforce a part of the demanded Claim, we will calculate the fee based only on the percentage of the Claim enforced by us. The same shall apply in the event of a settlement with the airline pursuant to para. 7.

3.4
Should our endeavours be unsuccessful, you will not be charged any Fees. This also applies if contract lawyers have been engaged to enforce the Claim. Should you have engaged a contract lawyer or if we have engaged a contract lawyer on your behalf, we shall exempt you from such lawyer’s fees in accordance with para. 6.4.

3.5
In the event of premature termination of the contract, air compensation’s (success-based) claim for compensation shall remain in effect, cf. para. 9.3.

3.6
Consumers often do not pursue air passenger rights at all, because the cost-benefit ratio seems unfavorable to them. We solve this problem by providing our services completely free of charge if a claim is not enforceable. In order to offer our clients relief from the risks of unsuccessful enforcement in an economically viable manner, we must cover our costs through our contingency fee in successful cases.

In order to successfully provide our services, we rely on a large number of specialized employees, for example for internal case processing, for communication with our customers and the airlines, for developing and maintaining the necessary IT infrastructure, and for conducting model litigation. In addition, there are the personnel costs for the traditional corporate departments (HR and finance, legal, marketing) as well as the costs for rent and materials.

Another factor that is taken into account when calculating the amount and terms of our success-based fee is the litigation costs we incur. If, for example, we lose a court case, we bear not only the court costs and our own attorney’s fees, but also the attorney’s fees of the opposing party and any expert witness fees. If we enforce claims abroad, we often have to bear the court and attorney’s fees even if the proceedings are successful.

In cases that we enforce out of court, there is often no claim against the airline for reimbursement of our costs. In addition, we bear the risk that a titled claim for reimbursement of costs against airlines is practically unenforceable (e.g., due to insolvency of an airline, fruitless or lack of economically viable enforcement options).

3.7
Pursuant to Section 13e of the German Law on Legal Services (RDG), you may claim compensation from your debtor for the costs we charge you for performing our services up to the amount of the remuneration to which a lawyer would be entitled for this work in accordance with the provisions of the German Law on the Remuneration of Lawyers (Rechtsanwaltsvergütungsgesetz).

4. Accounting, Payment

4.1
We are entitled to deduct the remuneration owed to us by you, including VAT and any interest accrued on the claim, directly from the payments received by us.

If a contract lawyer was engaged in the Authorisation Process, the contract lawyers shall pay the enforced amounts to us to enable us to prepare the respective accounts.

We will hold the amount attributable to you in one of our escrow accounts. We are entitled to enter into interest agreements with the banks managing the escrow accounts and to collect any resulting interest claims on our business accounts. The amount of the interest agreements varies depending on market conditions. The annual interest rate is currently calculated from the European Central Bank Deposit Facility rate minus 1.50 percentage points (Deposit Facility – 1.50 % p.a.). The Deposit Facility is the interest rate set by the European Central Bank for short-term deposits from commercial banks. This rate is variable, set by the ECB at regular intervals, and published on their website. As of the month-end closing on 31.05.2024, the interest rate for balances in the escrow account was 2.5 % p.a. Based on a claim of EUR 600.00, this rate results in an interest claim of EUR 0.58 over a two-week period.

In the interest of rationalization, you hereby waive the calculation and release of the interest claims attributable to your claim. Therefore, these interest claims are not to be released to you, deviating from the legal norm (§ 667 BGB in conjunction with § 675 BGB (German Civil Code)).

4.2
As soon as we have received all the documents required for billing, we will properly settle the account with you and pay the amount owed to you.

4.3
You must provide us with an account to which we can transfer the money. If we offer alternative payment methods (e.g., PayPal), you may provide the relevant information instead of the account details. In case you do not have a SEPA account, any fees incurred for the transfer or payment will be borne by you.

If you receive payments from us that are (also) intended for other persons (e.g., fellow travellers or co-tenants), you must forward these amounts proportionally to the entitled persons.

5. Term of the Contract, Termination

5.1
The contract concluded between you and the service provider shall expire once the Claim has been settled or if the service provider considers recovery unpromising after due assessment and has notified you of this fact.

5.2
In addition, the contract may be terminated by either party at any time. In particular, we reserve the right to terminate the contract in cases whereby you have intentionally violated the duties and obligations specified under para. 5.

5.3
Should you terminate the contract after engaging the service provider and after the Claim has been disbursed, our entitlement to fees pursuant to para. 4 remains valid.

5.4
The European Commission hosts a web-based platform for the resolution of online disputes; however, we prefer to resolve any problems directly with you and do not participate in consumer arbitration proceedings. In such cases, please contact us directly at: service@[your email address].

5.5
There are other options for enforcing the claim: the European Small Claims Procedure, the online form of the German Federal Aviation Authority, the conciliation body for air traffic at the Federal Office of Justice, an inquiry directly to the respective airline, and the offer of the Schlichtungsstelle für den öffentlichen Personenverkehr e. V. (conciliation body for public passenger transport).