The authority that runs Dublin Airport has apologised and promised to issue refunds totalling almost €350,000 after it overcharged thousands of customers for parking earlier this year.
Almost 4,500 customers paid more for parking during two so-called flash sales in March and May than they would have when the parking spaces were not discounted.
The overcharging emerged when impacted consumers started making contact with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) helplines.
The commission welcomed the DAA’s decision to refund customers who were overcharged during the ‘flash sales’ and thanked those who had alerted it to the overcharging.
It also noted that under the Consumer Protection Act 2007, it is against the law to provide incorrect or misleading information to consumers about price promotions.
The flash sales advertised car parking at a promotional rate of €10 or €12 per day but in some cases, airport car parking was priced at a lower rate in advance of and after the promotion.
One consumer who contacted the CCPC reported that on March 9th, the day before the sale, the price for 10 days’ parking was €83. However, this rose to €110 for the same dates and duration in the sale.
When the so-called sale ended, the price reverted to €83.
Another consumer booked parking for a five-day stay during the sale at a cost of €60, and the price for the same parking was €56 after the sale ended. A third person alerted the commission that a 12-day stay was priced at €94 during the sale and cost €80 just a couple of weeks before the sale began.
When the DAA was contacted by the CCPC, it confirmed that over the supposed sale periods, a total of 14,854 transactions were made with 4,405 of these transactions found to be an overpayment.
The total amount overpaid in those transactions was €25,838 with the average overpayment of about €5.90 while the maximum overpayment in respect of any one payment was €64.
“We welcome the swift action taken [by the DAA] following contact from the CCPC alerting it to potential breaches of consumer protection laws,” chairman of the commission Brian McHugh said.
“The CCPC was able to take this action thanks to consumers who took the time to report concerns about misleading sales pricing. All calls to the CCPC helpline are screened for potential breaches of consumer protection law and drive our enforcement and compliance activities.”
Mr McHugh said the flash sales coincided with the addition of a new competitor in the airport car park market and said that active competition among businesses “is vital to drive choice, better service and innovation. However, any promotions need to be grounded in real benefits to consumers”.
A DAA spokesman told The Irish Times that a flat €10-per-day rate was applied across all eligible dates during the sale, “unintentionally overriding lower offpeak prices”.
He said that once it was flagged by the CCPC, the DAA opened a full internal review and will take “immediate voluntary action”.
It is issuing full refunds to all affected customers of the total cost of their booking, not just the overcharge amount, totalling about €350,000 and offering a 20 per cent discount on future car park bookings as a goodwill gesture. System corrections and additional safeguards are being put in place to prevent recurrence.
“We got this wrong, and I want to personally apologise to every customer who was overcharged,” said chief executive of the DAA Kenny Jacobs. “It shouldn’t have happened. We’ve moved quickly to fix the issue and are now reimbursing everyone affected, automatically and in full. No forms, no hassle,” he said.
“We’ve also put new checks in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Our customers expect better, and rightly so. We’re proud of the high satisfaction levels we’ve built up, and we’re determined to maintain that trust by doing the right thing, every time.”