The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

In this Technical Note, it is presented a broad study to indicate solutions to the matters related to air transport sector using different rules. It begins the analysis with the Air Transport Regulatory Agency (ANAC) Resolution No. 400, dated 13 December 2016. 9 According to SENACON’s Technical Note, the ANAC Resolution No. 400/2016 defines some consumer rights in the air transport contracts. It also indicates that if the supplier decides to cancel the service or to change some aspects about it, the consumer has some rights based on this cancellation or service change. First and foremost, the consumer must be informed of any service change up to 72 hours before the flight time, especially about flight time as well as its route; in international flights, the supplier must offer the options of a full refund or be placed in another flight if the term of 72 hours before the flight time is not respected. Likewise, if the consumer is not informed of the flight change or its cancellation, therefore going to the airport, the supplier must offer the service execution in any other means of transport and material assistance, when applicable, in addition to the aforementioned options of a full refund or flight change. Moreover, the refund must be done in 7 days, having as reference the consumer request. If the purchase was made using a credit card, the supplier has 7 days to send the credit to the credit card enterprise. The consumer also has the option to keep the value of the flight as credit to buy other travel tickets, and by choosing this alternative, the consumer must receive the value information, the terms of use and the possibility of using the credit in favour of another person. In case of withdrawal, the paid amount with optional services, for example, travel insurance, will be regulated by the contract. The second norm analysed by the Technical Note is the Consumer Protection Code. The first indications are, on general ideas, related to access to information. The fore duty of information, the copy of contract, the information on the risks and an eventual limitation of freedom of circulation are some of the rights. Regarding the refund value, eventual costs will be fixed based on the contract and on ANAC Resolution No. 400/2016. Additionally, taxes could not have a value higher than the ticket price, even price on sale. 9 Available o n https://www.anac.gov.br/assuntos/legislacao/legislacao-1/resolucoes/resolucoes-2016/resolucao- no-400-13-12-2016/@@display-file/arquivo_norma/RA2016-0400%20-%20Compilado%20até%20RA2017- 0434.pdf , accessed on 10 April 2020.