The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge from airlines against federal government rule that requires airlines to advertise the full cost including tax of tickets.
The Federal government of U.S. has made in mandatory for all airlines to advertise the full cost of tickets and not hide taxes that consumers will incur on each ticket. Allegiant Travel Co, Spirit Airlines Inc and Southwest Airlines Co were a few of the airlines that were not very pleased with this new rule and decided to challenge it. However, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the challenge and left intact Transportation Department rules that were put in place last year to reduce consumer confusion about ticket charges.
In court papers, the three airlines stated that the transportation department is trying to block companies "from drawing clear and conspicuous attention to truthful information about the significant tax burden on airline tickets, at a time when the administration is pushing to raise those taxes even higher."
The court also ruled in favor of the Transportation Department's request that airlines should either allow penalty-free cancellation of reservations for 24 hours or let customers hold seats for a day without payment.
These rules were sent in place last year approved by a federal appeals court who said that they were a legitimate use of the department's power to regulate deceptive and unfair industry trade practices.
"The airline advertising rule is a quintessential consumer-protection regulation," U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argued in court papers. "The government's substantial interest in ensuring that consumers receive accurate information about air fares is clearly and directly advanced by a regulation requiring that the total, final price be the most prominent."
