Background
I.G.V. bought online, from her home in Fuenlabrada, a Vueling ticket for a domestic flight from Madrid to Barcelona. At Madrid airport, she separately arranged carriage of her baggage. The baggage was lost on the Madrid–Barcelona journey, before she continued to Rome on another flight.
She sued Vueling in the Fuenlabrada court for compensation under the Montreal Convention. The Spanish court asked whether the Convention’s jurisdiction rule applied to an entirely domestic EU flight, whether an online booking made from the passenger’s home made that home the carrier’s place of business through which the contract was made, and whether the baggage contract rather than the passenger transport contract determined that forum.
The Court’s Holding
The Court held that Article 33(1) of the Montreal Convention governs territorial jurisdiction for baggage-loss claims arising from domestic carriage within a single Member State. Regulation No 2027/97 extends the Convention’s relevant passenger-and-baggage liability rules, including its jurisdiction rule, to domestic EU flights.
A passenger’s principal and permanent residence is not the carrier’s “place of business through which the contract has been made” merely because the transport contract was concluded online from that residence. That reading would undermine the Convention’s specified jurisdictional scheme and expose carriers to litigation wherever an online offer is accessible.
For a baggage-loss claim, the relevant contract is the passenger’s air transport contract. Baggage carriage is ancillary to passenger carriage, so a separately arranged baggage service does not shift jurisdiction to the place through which that ancillary service was contracted.
Key Takeaways
- The Montreal Convention’s Article 33(1) jurisdiction rule applies to domestic EU baggage-loss claims through Regulation No 2027/97.
- An online booking does not give the courts at the passenger’s home jurisdiction under the carrier’s-place-of-business forum.
- The relevant contract for jurisdiction is the passenger transport contract, not a separately concluded baggage-carriage service.
Why It Matters
The judgment supplies a uniform jurisdiction rule for baggage claims against EU air carriers, regardless of whether the flight is domestic or international. It also limits forum shopping based on online booking: passengers must use one of the Article 33(1) forums, rather than their home court solely because they purchased the ticket there online.