Disputes Tribunal referee Laura Mueller ordered the airline to pay Morgan $13'555, saying: “Emirates advertised a business class service that consumers were very unlikely to receive.”
GLOCase was brought earlier by Mark Morgan, who claimed that he purchased business clas tickets from NZ to England based on Emirates advertising for business class seats that reclined to lie flat for a trip and has individual minibars, but the aircraft Emirates was running from New Zealand were older planes than the Boeing 777-300 featured in advertising targeting New Zealand travellers.
Morgan and his wife found the seats didn’t recline to lie flat, were less cushioned than those shown in Emirates’ advertising, and the entertainment system was not a new, upgraded system, and “due to its age, malfunctioned” and no internet connection.
Emirates argued that its small print in the contract with customers allows it to change the aircraft type it flies on routes due to operational requirements, as aircraft types aren’t guaranteed and hence, that it had not broken the Fair Trading Act(FTA) by running an advertising campaign that would mislead New Zealand travellers.
Disputes Tribunal referee Laura Mueller ordered the airline to pay Morgan $13’555, saying:
“Emirates advertised a business class service that consumers were very unlikely to receive.”
“This was the result of advertising a service that they were rarely delivering, not due to an occasional or one-off change of aircraft due to operational requirements. The promotional materials were based on an updated/new business class seat and service that is not in place in the older aircraft that Emirates flies to NZ.”
“The Fair Trading Act 1986 prohibits misleading and deceptive conduct in trade. The advertising of a service that Emirates knew would unlikely be delivered is misleading and deceptive.”
