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Holiday firms warned over unfair cancellation charges - MSE News

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Travel firms have been warned against forcing travellers to pay large non-refundable deposits, or charging hefty cancellation fees, by the competition watchdog...
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'Holiday firms warned over unfair cancellation charges'

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'Holiday firms warned over unfair cancellation charges'

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But they had exactly the same warning three years ago and have done absolutely nothing about it because successive Conservative governments refuse to regulate and prefer voluntary compliance.
And voluntary compliance rarely works with the private sector, so here we are again with an unenforceable and unenforced pointless warning.
Cruise companies are amongst the worst culprits because of the age profile, but they continue to profit from cancelled cabins that are often resold at higher prices than the original customer paid.
Travel Agent
Employment Agent
Estate Agent
Etc
Never had a problem with my local News Agent.
People (particularly on MSE it seems) need to be educated that the law will always override T&Cs. Even banks have unenforceable T&Cs.
You're missing the point, I'm afraid. It's a longstanding principle that unfair terms and conditions can't be enforced, but if you're a holidaymaker seeking to recover a deposit being held by a cruise or holiday company YOU will be the one having to take legal action to recover it through the courts.
What's actually needed is rather more enforcement, as I said, and it's perfectly possible but very rarely done:
A consumer can challenge an unfair term and seek redress through the courts, if unsatisfied with the business’s response after following its complaints procedures. The CMA, Trading Standards Services and other relevant bodies also have powers to pursue legal action to stop businesses using terms and notices that are unfair. If necessary, this can be achieved by seeking a court order.
If the government regulated instead of just coming up with useless waffle every couple of years trying to persuade travel companies to play fair with their customers, those publicly funded bodies wouldn’t need to take any action.
And the cheated customers wouldn’t either.
Governmental failure by successive Conservative governments, however you choose to dress it up.
If this warning indicated that the CMA was about to take some action it might make sense; otherwise it is just waffle.