EU court rules that buying flight cancellation insurance can’t be default setting on websites

LUXEMBOURG – The EU’s top court says that companies selling air tickets on the internet can’t make the purchase of flight cancellation insurance the default setting on their web pages.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice says customers must actively opt in — click the ‘buy insurance’ box, rather than having to notice it and unclick it.

The ruling, issued Thursday, said, “That requirement is designed to prevent a customer from being induced to purchase additional services which are not necessary for the purposes of the flight unless he chooses expressly to purchase them and to pay the corresponding price supplement.”

The ruling came in a case in which German consumer-protection association took ebookers.com Deutschland to court to force it to stop including the cancellation insurance automatically.