REVERBERATIONS OF THE PLACE OF CONTRACTUAL PERFORMANCE ON DETERMINING
THE COURTS’ JURISDICTION IN THE FIELD OF AIR TRANSPORTATION
The paper focuses on the reverberations of the concept of ‘place of performance of the contractual obligations’ on the establishing of court’s jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, under the provisions of second indent of Article 7, para. (1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012, in the perimeter of air transportation. The first part of the article deals with the preliminary points that should be stated concerning the judicial action which falls within the concept of ‘matters relating to main contractual provisions’ within the meaning of Article 7(1)(a) of Regulation No 1215/2012, in the hypotheses which cover the claims brought by air passengers for compensation for the long delay of a connecting flight, made under Regulation No 261/2004, against an operating air carrier with which the passenger concerned does not have a contractual nexus. As emphasised in the second part of the paper, particularly in the field of contracts concluded for the provision of services (air transport), as reflected in CJEU recent jurisprudence (Case C-20/21), in the case of flight consisting of a confirmed single booking and performed in several flight segments by two separate air carriers, under the provisions of art. 7 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, the common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, the claim for compensation brought against the air carrier operating that first flight segment falls under the territorial competence of the court from the place of arrival of that first flight. Thirdly, the reverberations of the place of contractual performance on determining the courts’ jurisdiction become ostensible since the place of arrival for that first flight segment may not be classified as a ‘place of contractual performance’ within the meaning of the legal provisions.
Keywords: contractual performance, jurisdiction, territorial competence, air transportation, passengers, right of compensation.
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