Loveholidays will need to refund £18 million to more than 40,000 customers amid the coronavirus turmoil.
The group is one of the UK’s largest online travel agents and has been ordered to issue a refund by competitive and market authorities after holiday operators received hundreds of complaints from customers.
“We are pleased to announce that Andrea Coscelli, CMA’s CEO, said:
“Our actions today mean that Loveholidays customers will be sure when they get their money back and receive this without undue delays.
“We continue to investigate package travel agencies and will not hesitate to take enforcement measures to protect our customers if we find evidence that businesses are violating consumer laws.”
LoveHolidays says it will fully repay customers by March 2021. So far, they have refunded between £7 million and 20,000 customers.
So far, we have given over £25 million refunds to over 180,000 customers. This is equivalent to a 10-year refund in just eight months.
Package Travel Regulations say online travel agents are legally bound to refund customers for package holidays cancelled due to the pandemic. This doesn’t matter whether the holiday operator has received a refund from a supplier such as an airline.
The latest news follows actions by the CMA when investigating holiday cancellations by many operators. I wrote about my obligation to comply with the Consumer Protection Act to over 100 package holiday companies. The CMA has already secured a refund commitment from LastMinute.com, Virgin Holidays, TUI UK, Sykes Cottages and Vacation Rentals.
