Air carriers will have to say goodbye to the possibility of “relatively honest taking money from the population”. According to Kommersant, the Central Bank's consumer protection service recommended that airlines disable automatic consent of passengers to purchase insurance when purchasing a ticket on their websites. At the same time, according to the carriers themselves, the sale of additional services is “a significant component of their non-aviation income.” For one tourist, an automatically received policy costs 300-600 rubles, depending on the carrier, as a result, the volume of the passenger air insurance market is 2-5 billion rubles. annually, with carriers receiving a “substantial portion”.
The corresponding recommendation of the Consumer Rights Protection Service of the Central Bank is contained in the minutes of the March meeting with representatives of carriers, insurance companies and Rospotrebnadzor. As justifications, representatives of the Central Bank called “negative information background associated with pre-established consent” to insurance, as well as a small “size of the insurance premium, which does not motivate consumers to return the policy and masks the problem.”
As added in Rospotrebnadzor last year, 82 warnings were issued to transport companies for “automatic insurance”. Moreover, 12 statements of claim “on protecting the interests of an indefinite circle of persons” were sent to the court due to the imposition of insurance. Insurers – and the meeting was attended by representatives of Ingosstrakh, SOGAZ, IC Soglasie, AlfaStrakhovanie, assured that there were “virtually no” complaints from the consumers themselves. They also suggested “focusing on court cases and acting in accordance with the decisions of higher instances”, noting that the pre-established consent “is a public offer, and payment for the service is an acceptance.”
As Kommersant's experts reported, ” voluntary-compulsory “insurance service, which is automatically added when buying a ticket, costs tourists from 300 rubles. for S7 up to 630 rubles. at Aeroflot. Air carriers also noted that there were “single” negative responses to the service, however, the sale of insurance is one of the non-aviation income items, and “it is becoming more popular from year to year.”
“Directly multiplying the number of passengers by the average price of insurance gives fees of almost 40 billion rubles. But the sources of Kommersant in the market indicate that the real volume of insurance is 2-5 billion rubles. The commission that carriers receive is “very significant,” the publication quotes its experts.
At the same time, the courts recognize fees for insurance as illegal and take the side of the client, Ilya Zotov, head of the All-Russian Association of Passengers, added to Kommersant. But in general, not every tourist wants to mess with the court because of 500 rubles. Some passengers simply believe that they are obliged to pay, experts add.
At the same time, in fact, few of the passengers manage to use insurance. Not every tourist studies 100 pages of an insurance contract by buying a ticket with a pre-checked box; as a result, they face difficulties in proving an insured event – like the fact that the flight was delayed due to the fault of the airline. Although insurers have a different opinion, AlfaStrakhovanie stated, for example, that when flights are delayed, the program automatically sends a notification to the passenger with the amount of compensation and a link to receive it. Note that insurers, as a rule, provide protection only in case of a long delay – from 3-4 hours), explains. Payments, according to the insurer – from 500 to 1 thousand rubles. in an hour. Moreover, over the course of a year, the insurer notes tens of thousands of insured events of delayed departure.
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