A study by the Brazilian Association of Airlines says that lawsuits against the sector increased by an average of 60% per year from 2020 to 2023
THE Abear (Brazilian Association of Airlines) released this Thursday (12.Sep.2024) a survey that indicates that legal actions against airlines have skyrocketed since 2020. According to the study, the number of lawsuits against companies in the sector increased by an annual average of 60% from 2020 to 2023. Read the full of the study (PDF – 1 MB).
The association says that this high level of litigation does not reflect the quality of service in the country, but rather exposes a flaw in the regulations of the airline industry and in the judicial system. Speaking to journalists, the president of Abear, Jurema Monteiro, said that the numbers are a reflection of a scheme by “vulture offices” that seek to attract passengers who have had delayed flights to file lawsuits for moral damages.
Monteiro explained that the scheme works as follows:
- an office contacts the passenger and promises an advance payment of the value of the share;
- the customer receives the money and at the end of the process also receives a voucher from the company to take another trip;
- the voucher remains with the office, in addition to the fees, which sells the ticket to third parties (travel agencies or other passengers).
“The platforms pass on the data to partner lawyers, who file the lawsuit on behalf of the consumer. They seek quick and advantageous agreements, preferably paid in vouchers from the companies – which in turn began to feed a parallel market”says the survey. Around 20 offices hold 10% of all lawsuits against airlines in the country.
To curb this “parallel market”, companies stopped offering vouchers as a compensation measure from the 2nd half of 2023.
The study indicates that 98.5% of lawsuits filed against airlines worldwide occur in Brazil. Of this amount, 90% are in search of compensation for moral damages. The average cost of these lawsuits is R$6,700.00. “It is the equivalent of 10 times the value of the average ticket [R$ 670,00] from Brazil”said Monteiro.
The executive said that Abear works together with OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) to mitigate this practice. Monteiro stated that this search for clients driven by digital platforms violates the ethical principles of the legal profession.
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