Hírek

It happened several times that consumers asked from the Arbitration Board of Budapest whether they can enforce their claim for compensation if their domestic journeys were delayed or when their bus or train did not even reach its destination. We would like to help the consumers with some useful advice! First and foremost you have to keep the travel documents, which prove the fact of the journey and also proves that the passenger really had been concerned with the delay of that certain train or bus. It also doesn’t hurt to take into account that in a number of rides, seat reservation is required: in this case, a single ticket cannot be sufficient to prove the damages, so it is advisable to keep this ticket too, because the service provider may request to attach it to our claim. For those who have season passes, their travel entitlement can be justified by presenting a valid pass to that particular travel route. Like all claims, it is also true in this case that the claim should be notified in writing, accompanied by the justifying documents. What kind of damages may occur? The delay of train and bus rides can cause a number of different damages for the passengers. For example, if a consumer hasn’t made it to work that day and it caused a potential loss of earnings, he may also claim a compensation for that lost amount. Of course, in this case – and in any other case involving a claim – we not only have to prove the damage itself with some evidence, but the victim must be able to demonstrate the precisely calculated value of his damage. In the aforementioned case for example, if the consumer failed to reach a connecting vehicle, and already had the ticket, the amount he paid for it can be capable of proving the damages incurred. Can we reclaim the taxi fare? It is often arises as a question whether a passenger can ask for the taxi costs if he missed a connection and had to call a taxi to go home. It is also important to clarify that loss prevention and mitigation it this case is still an obligation for the consumer. In practice, this means that if you could have alternative transportation options to go to your destination instead of a taxi (for example, instead of a missed train connection you can take a bus ride or other local transportation) you must choose this cheaper solution; you cannot use immediately the more expensive taxi service! Of course, if there is no other transport option was available, where appropriate, even taxi costs are enforceable. I missed a travel abroad because of a public transportation company, am I entitled to the refund of the trip or the plane tickets? Extreme cases can happen, such as when a consumer expects that with a scheduled public transportation vehicle he can reach a plane, but due to the delay he cannot reach a given flight and thus validates a claim. In this and similar cases, it is an extremely rare scenario when this person has reasonable grounds to his demands, since according to the law, damages arising as a result of breaching a contract and foregone financial benefits have to be reimbursed to the extent that a consumer can prove that the damage as a potential consequence of the breach of the contract had been foreseeable by the passenger services company at the time of the conclusion of the contract. When can a service be discharged from responsibility? A service can only be discharged from responsibility for damages caused by breaching a contract (when a consumer had tickets or a season pass to travel) if it proves that the breach was caused because of circumstances that were outside of its control and had been unforeseen at the time of the conclusion of the contract (force majeure), and it could not have been expected from it to prevent or eliminate the damages. These regulations clearly show that only a general guidance can be given to these compensation cases, since each claim requires individual treatment and all the circumstances involved have to be considered when we decide whether a consumers claim is substantiated and is able to prove the damage incurred and the exact value of the damages. Finally, it is also advisable to inform in advance from the passenger service’s website: this is where you can find the current GCC-s, from which consumers can find the exact process of these compensation procedures and other details that may be relevant in their cases.