Journey Regulation Updates: EU, Australia, Brazil and Asia Pacific

These practices have been facilitated by Delivery Hero’s minority shareholding in Glovo, which created a channel for coordination and later culminated in full possession in July 2022. The EU Commission discovered that this relationship enabled sustained collusion, decreasing shopper alternative, limiting employment mobility and undermining innovation in a fast-growing digital sector.

Both corporations acknowledged their involvement and opted to settle the case, receiving a ten% discount in fines. The Commission highlighted this resolution as a landmark case:

• the primary cartel discovering within the EU’s labour market context; and
• the primary time an organization was fined for utilizing a minority shareholding to facilitate anti-competitive conduct.

The EU Commission famous that it’ll guarantee honest competitors in digital markets and warned that comparable scrutiny could comply with in different sectors the place platform dominance and cross-ownership elevate competitors issues.

Please here see for additional particulars.

In June the French competitors authority adopted a call imposing fines on Alten, Expleo, Bertrandt and Ausy for mutual agreements to not rent one another’s staff. This is more likely to influence crew and key worker employment phrases and poaching practices. Please see additional particulars.

On the radar

The Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council has submitted to the EU Parliament a proposal to reform EU Regulation 261/2004. This regulation governs compensation for delayed and cancelled flights and the important thing proposed modifications embrace:

• revised necessary compensation for delayed flights;
• 14-day fee interval for compensation;
• reimbursement of as much as 400% for rerouted flights;
• a definition of ‘exceptional circumstances’; and
• tarmac delays expressly included within the scope of the regulation.

The EU Parliament will now contemplate the proposed reforms and has the facility to just accept, reject or amend them.

Japan

In July 2025, Japanese police arrested a 28-year-old man on fees of fraudulent obstruction of enterprise and intent to harass. He is alleged to have made 580 reservations at a resort close to Haneda Airport utilizing a number of false names. This included making 258 bookings in a single evening from a pc at his then employer. This has resulted in losses for the resort of JPY17m (roughly US$113,787). This seems to be associated to points which arose throughout a keep on the resort in November. The resort, which has not been publicly recognized, doesn’t seem to require a bank card for bookings. While this isn’t uncommon within the Japanese home resort sector, requiring a bank card would have made it harder for this particular person to make these bookings with out the prospect of being charged for the bookings or not less than a no-show price. It can be probably that the bank card issuer would have suspended the cardboard for suspected fraud the place 258 bookings have been made on the identical resort in a single evening.

What to observe

This is a well timed reminder that on-line platforms needs to be vigilant for fraud and misuse in all markets and to make sure that their fraud detection programs might determine these transactions and droop or cancel them as shortly as potential.

Thailand

Passenger rights for delayed and cancelled flights now in drive.

On 20 May 2025, the Thai Civil Aviation Authority (“CAAT”) Regulation 101 got here into drive and offers passengers with rights in relation to delayed and cancelled flights and in respect of downgrades, upgrades and tarmac delays. These comply with an analogous construction to the compensation accessible within the European Union underneath EC Regulation No. 261/2004. The CAAT launched these laws to make sure passengers on worldwide flights have rights the place their flights are delayed or cancelled. This was prompted, partially, by complaints from passengers on delayed and cancelled worldwide flights departing Thailand. Thailand had present laws for passenger rights and compensation for delayed and cancelled flights, however this solely utilized to home flights. Regulation 101 will increase compensation for home flights underneath this present regime. A key side of fee of compensation for cancelled or delayed flights is that compensation should be paid in money instantly in case of home flights, and inside 14 days of the affected flight in case of worldwide flights. Where a passenger has booked and paid for the flight on a third-party platform, reminiscent of a web-based journey agent (“OTA”), the airline could not have the passenger’s fee particulars and should then be requested from the passenger. Passengers can even conform to be paid within the type of a credit score or voucher for future journey, frequent flyer miles and different non-cash compensation. Whilst this needs to be handled between the airline and affected passengers, OTAs and different intermediaries needs to be ready to obtain and reply to claims from affected passengers for compensation and makes an attempt by passengers to hunt to e book flights on that airline by way of an OTA platform utilizing airline credit or vouchers.

On the radar

Regulation 101 requires airways to have in place preparations for resorts and meals for affected passengers by May 2024 relatively than permitting airways to cope with the necessity for lodging as and when this turns into crucial. Airlines and airport resorts who’ve agreed phrases and charges in May 2024 for passengers on delayed and cancelled flights might want to handle modifications in charges and availability as and when airways require lodging for affected passengers, notably the place the affected flight is a number of months after these charges have been agreed. A key problem could also be whether or not unavailability of rooms would represent a breach of such agreements.

On 5 July, Thailand issued the Notification of the Electronic Transactions Commission on Measures to Prevent Technological Crimes for Social Media Service Providers. This requires social media platforms to take away false or falsified content material which might lead to a cybercrime inside 24 hours of discover to take action from the Prevention and Suppression Division of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. The energy of presidency companies to take action outcomes from an April 2025 modification to the Cybercrime Prevention and Suppression Measures Emergency Decree 2023.