Spain has fined five budget airlines €179m (£149m) for “abusive practices,” including charging extra for hand luggage.
Ryanair has been fined almost €108m – the largest of the fines – while IAG’s Vueling was issued a €39m penalty on Friday.
The Spanish Ministry of Consumer Affairs issued sanctions against airlines that had made “very serious” violations of consumer regulations.
It said that alongside the fines, practices including charging extra for hand luggage and for reserving adjacent seats for children would now be prohibited.
Low-cost easyJet received a fine of €29m, while Norwegian Airlines and Spanish company Volotea were fined €1.6m and €1.2m respectively.
Pablo Bustinduy, minister of social rights, consumption and agenda, added that fines first announced in May would be upheld after rejecting appeals launched by the carriers.
The €179m is the biggest sanction issued by the ministry following an investigation into practices in the low-cost airline industry.
Sanctioned airlines were also found to not allow cash payment at Spanish airports and lacked price clarity on their websites, said the Spanish body.
Irish carrier Ryanair was additionally singled out for their controversial check-in charge – charging passengers a “disproportionate amount” to print their boarding pass at the terminal.
The ministry said that the sanctions were calculated based on the “illicit benefits” obtained by the airlines from the offending practices.
Ryanair, easyJet and Norwegian said that they had filed administrative appeals against the fines.
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair CEO, called the fines “illegal” and “baseless”.
He said: “These illegal and baseless fines, invented by Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry for political reasons, are clearly in breach of EU law. Ryanair has for many years used bag fees and airport check-in fees to change passenger behaviour and we pass on these cost savings in the form of lower fares to consumers.
“Today’s illegal fines in Spain are in breach of EU law (Reg 1008/2008) and will be overturned by the EU courts, which have repeatedly defended the right of all EU airlines to set prices and policies, free from government interference.”
The Spanish Airlines Association (ALA) called the fines a “nonsense” that “turns its back on the EU and undermines the free market”.
ALA president Javier Gandara said: “If implemented, the resolution of the Ministry of Consumption would cause irreparable harm to passengers, as it would violate their freedom to tailor their trip to their needs and force them to pay for services they may not need. Currently, nearly 50 million passengers travel without cabin luggage and, with the decision of the Ministry of Consumption, they will be forced to subsidise this service for the rest of the passengers.”
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “We completely disagree with the decision of the Spanish Consumer Ministry and find the proposed sanctions outrageous. We will be formally appealing this through the courts and will vigorously defend our position. All of our customers can bring a small cabin bag for free which gives them the flexibility to only pay for what they want to. We consider our bag policy to be in line with all applicable laws and as such there is no change to our current cabin bag policy.”
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