To be precise I threatened with Small Claims Court and the papers/claim/summons were issued - VS then settled prior to me having to request judgement against them - therefore technically it 'never went to court' and so no legal precident was made...
However HM Customs & Excise confirmed every legal point of my justification. The airline in this case is collecting a tax on behalf of the Customs & Excise and their general position/practice/direction being that 'no charge maybe made to administrate collection of a tax' and as such no airline has any right to make an admin charge to return a tax that was not due to HMCE because the pax never flew (checked in) and any such charge detailed in an airlines Terms & Conditions are in principle invalid as they are overuled by the actual legislation.
The collection of this tax is no different to the collection of VAT by a retailer on behalf of HMCE and no retailer can/does charge an admin charge should you return a good and they have to return the full cost including the VAT element (which as above is no longer due to be collected to HMCE)
The people who should be ruling on this quite simply are HMCE who should make it quite clear to the airline what the rules and regs are...unfortunately I have never seen the full instructions for collection of this tax issued by HMCE to the airlines so cannot say whether or not this point/instruction is made explicitly as it is for VAT collection for example...I somehow think not and this lack of direction is causing the current problems...and the airlines are conveniently pocketing your cash.
Last edited by Boss Raptor; 5th July 2004 at 19:20.