The President of Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has ordered Enter Air to provide consumers with benefits worth more than PLN 8.2 million in total. The decision follows proceedings conducted against the carrier in connection with the practices it used when handling complaints and implementing passenger rights. The case concerns both baggage-related issues and situations involving cancelled or significantly delayed flights.
Enter Air is a Polish airline specializing in charter flights operated mainly for travel agencies. UOKiK received complaints from passengers who pointed to difficulties in enforcing their rights. During the proceedings, the President of UOKiK challenged 10 practices used by the company. Instead of imposing an administrative fine, the authority issued a commitment decision, the result of which is intended to bring specific compensation to travelers.
As UOKiK President Tomasz Chróstny emphasized, passengers should have a real opportunity to exercise their rights, while carriers are obliged to create transparent complaint-handling rules that comply with the law. This applies not only to responses to claims, but also to ensuring appropriate assistance when problems arise before a flight, during the journey, and after it has ended.
One of the most important elements of the decision concerns compensation linked to complaints about damaged, destroyed, or lost baggage. Enter Air is to pay PLN 170 to those travelers whose complaints were examined late and then rejected or only partially accepted. Under applicable regulations, the deadline for responding to such complaints is 14 days. The authority reminded that a company cannot unilaterally extend this period, and that failure to respond within the deadline, or a complete lack of response, generally means that the claim is deemed accepted.
An important part of the decision also concerns the PIR report, or Property Irregularity Report, prepared at the airport after baggage-related irregularities are identified. According to UOKiK, such a document, if it contains all the necessary information concerning the facts of the case and the passenger’s claims, should be treated as a complaint submitted to the carrier. This means that passengers who completed a PIR, but whose later claims were rejected as filed too late, are also to receive compensation.
The benefits are also to cover other situations in which complaints were rejected by Enter Air for reasons challenged by the authority. These include, among others, cases in which the airline refused to acknowledge claims because of the age of the suitcase, the absence of specific documents required by the carrier, or the airline’s unilateral exclusion of its own liability.
The second group of compensation concerns delays in the delivery of checked baggage. In such cases, consumers whose claims or reimbursement requests were rejected by Enter Air despite expenses incurred as a result of the missing baggage are to receive PLN 200 each. UOKiK challenged the practice of rejecting claims when the flight ended in the passenger’s country of residence, as well as the limitation of reimbursement solely to so-called essential items. The authority found that compensation for delayed baggage delivery may be due regardless of the destination of the trip, and that the regulations do not limit the carrier’s liability to only one category of purchases.
The decision also covers cases related to cancelled flights and significant delays. UOKiK found that Enter Air concluded settlements with passengers, both on board the aircraft and after they had left it, offering benefits lower than those provided for by law. In the authority’s view, passengers may not have received full and clear information about their rights. In such cases, the carrier is required to pay the difference up to the level of compensation provided for by law and, in addition, grant an open-ended voucher worth PLN 50 for one-time use on any flight operated by Enter Air.
The liability of airlines is based on the provisions of the Montreal Convention and EU Regulation No. 261/2004. It is this regulation that sets out the minimum passenger rights in the event of flight cancellation, long delay, or denied boarding. The amount of compensation depends on the distance of the route and equals EUR 250 for flights up to 1,500 km, EUR 400 for flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km, and EUR 600 for all other flights. As a rule, the payment is due when a passenger reaches the final destination at least three hours late or when the flight has been cancelled.
According to the decision, those entitled to compensation are to be informed individually by Enter Air within six months from the date the decision becomes final. The company must contact passengers no later than October 24, 2026, and provide information on the method and timing of the automatic payment of benefits. If such automatic payment is not possible, for example due to the lack of a bank account number, the carrier will be required to make the payment upon the consumer’s request. Detailed instructions are to be provided directly to the affected passengers by the company.
In addition, Enter Air must publish a notice about the decision of the President of UOKiK on its website and on its Facebook profile. The authority has announced that it will monitor the implementation of the commitment. According to estimates, the total value of the compensation may amount to exactly PLN 8,234,034.
It is worth emphasizing that some consumers may be entitled to more than one payment if their case involved different violations. The benefits cover not only those who submitted complaints, but also those who may have refrained from asserting their rights as a result of actions that UOKiK considered misleading. Such passengers will be able to contact Enter Air, referring to the decision of the President of UOKiK. At the same time, receiving compensation under this decision does not prevent consumers from pursuing further claims if they believe the amount due to them should be higher.
