In recent years, there have been more frequent cases when, upon cancellation of a previously paid tour, tourists refuse to take back from the travel agency the partially refunded amount by the tour operator, taking into account the deduction of the FPR. In this case, dissatisfied travelers go to court, where they demand from the agency not only 100% is the cost of the trip, but also penalties, fines, moral damages and legal costs.
As Vladimir Kazak, the leading lawyer of the company "Baiborodin and Partners", told the TRN portal, in most cases, when a tourist refuses a booked tourist product, tour operators refund the money minus the actual expenses incurred. At the same time, the refund amount may be much less than the amount received by the travel agency from the tourist and transferred by the travel agent to the tour operator.
“Having received a notice from a travel agent about their readiness to refund money, tourists often declare their refusal to receive the amount announced by the travel agent and do not take steps to receive money from the travel agency,” the lawyer says.
According to Mr. Kazak, if the payment was made by bank transfer, travel agencies have the opportunity, without waiting for the tourist’s consent, to return the money to the personal account of the tourist who paid the money, and avoid collecting undisputed amounts through the courts.
“However, in the case of cash payments, when the travel agent does not have the tourist’s account information, the travel agent becomes a hostage to so-called tourist extortion,” the lawyer emphasizes.
Thus, according to the expert, tourists are now increasingly filing lawsuits in which they demand that the travel agent pay the cost of the tourist product, penalties, moral damages and a fine for failure to comply with consumer requirements. The claim is usually filed several months after the claim is filed with the travel agent,
"Based on judicial practice, the courts involve the tour operator as a co-defendant or third party, who presents evidence of expenses related to the cancellation of the tourist product and documents on the timely transfer of funds to the travel agent at the court hearing. As a result, the court finds out that the money due to the tourist and subject to collection has been with the travel agent for a long time, and makes a decision to collect the amount that the travel agent was ready to return from the travel agent, as well as penalties, a fine, moral damages and legal costs. Moreover, the judge determines the amount of the fine, penalty for moral damages and legal costs based on his personal position. This may be either the maximum amount provided for by current legislation or a purely symbolic amount, since the judge has no legal grounds for refusing to satisfy the consumer's claim for the collection of a fine, penalty for moral damages and legal costs. Moreover, even if a travel agent attempted to transfer money to a tourist via postal order, and the tourist did not receive it, but the money was returned to the travel agent’s account, judges often do not see grounds to refuse the demands made by the consumer,” the TRN source said.
Against this background, the question arises: how should a travel agent act in this situation to avoid financial losses? According to Vladimir Kazak, there are two options in this case:
1. In the letter to the tourist, indicate the terms for receiving the funds, and these must be fairly short terms, and, if the tourist does not come to collect the money or refuses to receive the funds, deposit an amount that is not disputed by the travel agent on the notary's deposit. The travel agent notifies the tourist about depositing funds on the notary's deposit. In this situation, the court considers that the travel agent has fulfilled its obligations to return the funds to the tourist. The downside of this option is that you will have to run around looking for a notary who is willing to accept funds on deposit, and it may happen that in a small town there is no such notary. Notaries state that they do not provide this service. This is one thing. And the second thing is that you will have to pay for this service, and the cost of this service is about 10,000 rubles.
2. Deposit funds (the undisputed amount) into the deposit account of the court department. In this case, in the payment purpose, you indicate "Refund of the undisputed amount based on the application of Full Name (tourist) under the "Agreement on the Sale of Tourist Product No. ___" dated HH.MM.YYYY". The travel agent notifies the tourist of the fact that funds have been deposited into the deposit account of the court department. In this situation, the court considers that the travel agent has fulfilled its obligations to return the funds to the tourist. The downside of this procedure is that you need to know the exact details for depositing funds into the court deposit. However, not all court specialists know these details. The advantage of this method is that the costs of depositing funds into the deposit account of the court department are the cost of a bank transfer.
“At the same time, the head of the travel agency must understand that it is not worth delaying the procedure for depositing funds into the notary’s or judicial department’s deposit, since the deadlines for fulfilling obligations to return funds are determined by the notary’s or judicial department’s deposit,” the expert concluded.
Source: trn-news.ru