CTA proposes fines against passengers who share complaint resolutions

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If you’re currently in the process of having an airline complaint resolved by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), you’d best keep the final result to yourself.

Proposed changes to the Canada Transportation Act would make sharing it publicly a violation punishable by a fine.

Last year, the Canadian Transportation Act was amended such that when an order is handed down from a CTA air travel complaints resolution officer, the agency requires the carrier to make public certain details — the flight number, departure date, the nature of the delay (if applicable) and whether it provided “compensation or a refund” as dictated by their contract terms.

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But if asked by the complainant or carrier, the CTA can “decide to keep confidential any part of an order” other than the details listed above.

Anything else about how the matter was settled, unless agreed upon by both parties, can’t be disclosed.

“Applicants can discuss publicly the details of their travel journey/experience. What is confidential is the Complaint Resolution Process,” agency spokesman Jadrino Huot told the National Post via email.

Last year’s update was decried at the time by Gabor Lukacs, founder and president of the Air Passenger Rights’ group and its Facebook page, who called it “unconstitutional” and felt that passengers should be permitted to share the rulings as it could inform other people in similar situations.

He likened it to Canadian small claims court decisions, available for all to read online, being kept confidential.

“Once mediation turns into binding decision-making, that cannot be kept confidential unless there are some very, very important issues like protecting victims in sexual assault cases,” he argued.

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The new amendments would allow CTA to update its designated provision regulations (DPR) to use the “Confidentiality of information” section of the Act to warrant administrative monetary penalties (AMP) against anyone who violates it.

Huot said updates to the DPR are standard following changes to legislation or regulations.

“The updates through this designation exercise are not the result of the observation of any systemic issue, and do not signal the CTA’s intent to use these authorities for the purpose of enforcing confidentiality, either with airlines or passengers, or that any penalties will be applied automatically.”

He also said, “there are no new legal requirements relating to the confidentiality of decisions.”

CTA didn’t respond to specific questions about the fine amount, but if the violation were assigned the lowest severity level under the agency’s monetary penalty framework, the initial fine would be $50. It would double for each subsequent violation on the same matter.

Under AMP in the Act, it prescribes a maximum $5,000 fine.

The CTA, however, has a host of compliance and enforcement mechanisms in place before monetary fines are employed.

The National Post contacted Lukacs for comment on the latest modifications. In a Facebook post this week, he called for people to send feedback to the agency, condemning the changes, before the deadline on Friday, Feb. 28.

“It is unconstitutional, being contrary to the Charter, and also it is outside the CTA’s mandate to regulate passengers or the public’s speech,” he wrote.

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