Leeds Bradford airport rip off

This thread is about rip off charges by airport operators.

I don't find it particularly entertaining to see the usual suspects surrounding an OP like a pack of hyenas.

To think that these posters actually are representative of a significant section of our society is scarey.

The OP has made a mistake by comparing an airport business with a shop selling beans. But the original post is valid.

Airports are privileged businesses. They use land in ways which blight their neighbours' properties unless their neighbour happens to be a hotel, a car hire or a car park business. I can remember when you would be lucky to spot a single aircraft move on a Sunday afternoon at London Stansted "airport".

Airfields have been around in their hundreds since WWII. Airports of ilk are a much more recent phenomenum. Airport owner businesses which corner their own market in such things as car parking are even more recent, and the phenomenum of an airport which causes every visitor to pay exhorbitant charges for stopping their vehicle for whatever reason be it drop off or pick up is only about 3 years old.

It is a very good example of how ruthless some business people are prepared to be in order to make their mark. Thesedays the mark of something corporate is as ugly as its soul.

Most regular users of these airports generally only get caught once by each ruthless implementation and they then either find a workaround or they adjust their buying decision.

Irregular users (and naturally those that pick up and drop off passengers are more likely to fall into that category) are likely to be stung every time.

The suggestion to use another airport is crass. The suggestion that implementing such schemes is lawful is equally crass because any business practice, especially if it is new, may be a misleading practice or contain a misleading omission which causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise. Each new implementation can fairly be analysed and rejected if someone decides to prosecute a case.

If you are deliberately herded through a tolled vehicle barrier anywhere (at an airport or a shopping mall or indeed anywhere) and that "herding" and consequent corralling of your vehicle results in an instantaneous charge then I contend that a misleading business practice has occurred.

It doesn't matter whether there is a sign of smallprint next to the barrier - unless a clear transactional choice is given then the practice which encourages a driver to pass through the barrier and incur a charge which they would not in their right mind deliberately incur IS UNLAWFUL under CPRs 2008.

CPRs 2008 are about as new as some of the most ruthless business practices we all have to deal with daily now (like unapproachable airports). Essentially they need testing by a few stout citizens. They are the law, and the law is generally flouted.