Case C‑509/11

ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Verwaltungsgerichtshof)

(Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 — Rail passengers’ rights and obligations — Article 17 — Compensation in the event of a delay — Excluded in the event of force majeure — Whether permissible — First subparagraph of Article 30(1) — Powers of the national body responsible for the enforcement of the regulation — Whether it is possible to require the rail carrier to amend its conditions governing passenger compensation)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 26 September 2013

1.        Transport — Rail transport — Regulation No 1371/2007 — Rail passengers’ rights and obligations — Compensation in the event of a delay — Not permissible to exclude in the event of force majeure or one of the reasons listed at Article 32(2) of the CIV Uniform Rules

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1371/2007, Art. 17 and Annex I, Art. 32(2))

2.        Transport — Rail transport — Regulation No 1371/2007 — Rail passengers’ rights and obligations — Powers available to the national body responsible for the enforcement of Regulation No 1371/2007 — Whether it is possible to require the rail carrier to amend its conditions governing passenger compensation, in the absence of any national provision to that effect — Not permissible

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1371/2007, Art. 30(1), first para.)

1.        Article 17 of Regulation No 1371/2007 on rail passengers’ rights and obligations must be interpreted as meaning that a railway undertaking is not entitled to include in its general terms and conditions of carriage a clause under which it is exempt from its obligation to pay compensation in the event of a delay where the delay is attributable to force majeure or to one of the reasons set out at Article 32(2) of the Uniform Rules concerning the Contract for International Carriage of Passengers and Luggage by Rail of the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail of 9 May 1980, as amended by the Vilnius Protocol of 3 June 1999.

In that regard, the purpose of the compensation provided for in Article 17 of Regulation No 1371/2007 is to compensate the passenger for the consideration provided for a service which was not ultimately supplied in accordance with the transport contract. It is a fixed-rate standard form of financial compensation, unlike that provided for under the system of liability established at Article 32(1) of the CIV Uniform Rules, which requires an individual assessment of the damage suffered.

Therefore, as the purpose of the above provisions and the procedures for their implementation are different, the compensation system provided for by the EU legislature in Article 17 of Regulation No 1371/2007 cannot be treated in the same way as the railway carrier’s liability system under Article 32(1) of the CIV Uniform Rules. The carrier’s grounds of exemption from liability provided for in Article 32(2) of the CIV Uniform Rules cannot be considered applicable in the context of Article 17 of Regulation No 1371/2007.

(see paras 38, 39, 42, 52, operative part 2)

2.        The first subparagraph of Article 30(1) of Regulation No 1371/2007 on rail passengers’ rights and obligations must be interpreted as meaning that the national body responsible for the enforcement of that regulation may not, in the absence of any national provision to that effect, impose upon a railway undertaking whose compensation terms do not meet the criteria set out at Article 17 of that regulation the specific content of those terms.

It follows from the preceding considerations that Article 30(1) of Regulation No 1371/2007 requires for its implementation that Member States adopt measures defining the powers available to the national supervisory body.

Therefore, the first subparagraph of Article 30(1) of Regulation No 1371/2007 cannot be interpreted as constituting a legal basis authorising national bodies to impose on railway undertakings the specific content of their contractual terms relating to the circumstances in which they are to pay compensation.

(see paras 62, 63, 66, operative part 1)