INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW the EU Law requires airlines to inform passengers of their rights so that they can effectively exercise them. The Vienna District Court for Commercial Affairs (11.03.2021 - 7 C 12/21x) ruled that the passenger's selection of a voucher on the airline's booking portal satisfied the requirements for written consent within Article 7(3), and the District Court of Königs Wusterhausen (16.11.2021 – 4th C 1402/21, B) ruled that requesting a voucher by telephone does not meet the requirements. 2. THE PROCEDURE FOR TRAVEL VOUCHERS AND OTHER REIMBURSEMENTS The passenger booked a connecting flight with TAP Air Portugal, which was due to take place on July 1, 2020, from Fortaleza (Brazil) to Frankfurt am Main (Germany) via Lisbon for 1,447.02 euros, but the carrier cancelled the flight. Since May 19, 2020, during the pandemic crisis, TAP began offering passengers a procedure for requesting reimbursements, including for flights cancelled by it, on the home page of its website. Passengers could thus choose between an immediate reimbursement in the form of travel vouchers by filling out an online form and a refund in another form, for example, a sum of money or bank transfer, as long as they contacted their customer service department in advance to examine the facts. The conditions of acceptance were only available in English, and the passenger had to accept them after providing the following information: ticket number, surname, email address, and telephone number. The information states that if they opted for a refund in the form of a travel voucher, refunding the ticket in cash would be precluded. On June 4, 2020, the passenger opted for the travel voucher and received it by email, totalling 1,737.52 euros, corresponding to the initial ticket price, plus a supplement, which he transferred two months later to Cobult. Cobult requested that TAP reimburse the price of the cancelled flight in cash within 14 days and, upon refusal, filed an action, which the court of first instance declared unfounded because the refund in the form of the travel voucher had extinguished the rights of the assigning passenger.
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