Article 26 of Regulation (EU) no. 1177/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 concerning the rights of passengers when travelling by sea and inland waterways (the maritime passenger rights regulation) provides as follows:

"By 1 June 2015 and every 2 years thereafter, the enforcement bodies designated pursuant to Article 25 shall publish a report on their activity in the previous two calendar years, containing in particular a description of actions taken in order to implement the provisions of this Regulation, details of sanctions applied and statistics on complaints and sanctions applied."

This report includes the Danish Maritime Authority’s statement on enforcement of the maritime passenger rights regulation in 2021 and 2022. Annex 1 provides links to legislation mentioned in the report.

The Regulation entered into force on 18 December 2012. In general, the Regulation aims to en­sure a level of protection for ship passengers comparable to that for passengers using other types of transport.

The Regulation includes rules on minimum rights for passengers travelling

• on passenger services where the port of embarkation is situated in the territory of a Member State,
• on passenger services operated by EU carriers from a port in a third country to a port in the territory of a Member State and
• on a cruise where the port of embarkation is situated in the territory of a Member State.

The Regulation does not prevent passengers from claiming compensation in national courts under national law for individual losses resulting from cancellation or delay of transport services.

Article 25 of the Regulation provides that each Member State shall designate one or more new or existing bodies responsible for the enforcement of the Regulation. Each body must take the measures necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Regulation.

Article 25 also provides that any passenger may submit a complaint in accordance with national law to the competent body designated by a Member State about an alleged infringement of the Regulation. This body must provide the passengers with substantiated replies to complaints within a reasonable period of time.

a. Responsibility for enforcement
The Danish Maritime Authority is responsible for the enforcement of rules related to carriers, including shipowners, performing the transport. Sections 440 and 514 a of the merchant shipping act (søloven) provide the legal basis for laying down rules on compliance and application of the Regulation, including rules on the right to complain as well as on fees and penalties.

Pursuant to the merchant shipping act (søloven) and by authority, the Danish Maritime Authority has issued order 74/2013, as amended by order 7/2015. The order concerns the rights of ship passengers and the possibility of ordering anyone grossly violating the Regulation, including carriers, travel agents, tour operators and ticket vendors, to rectify the situation immediately or before a given deadline, cf. section 5.

The Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority is responsible for rules related to port terminals, including terminal operators, ticket vendors, travel agents and tour operators. Sections 1a, 17a and 18(3) of consolidated act 457/2012 on ports (lov om havne) provide the legal basis. The Authority has also issued order 1236/2014 on the right to supervise and complain about the accessibility of port terminals, etc., for disabled persons and persons with re­duced mobility.

b. Right of complaint

b.1. The Danish Maritime Authority
Section 2 of order 74/2013 provides that passengers can file complaints related to the Regulation to the Danish Maritime Authority, if the Danish Consumer Complaints Board or the Danish Travel Industry Complaint Board cannot consider them, or if they concern terminal operators. Prior to that, complainants must file complaints with the carrier, i.e. typically the shipowner.

b.2. The Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority
Section 2 of order 1236/2014 provides that complainants must forward complaints about a terminal operator's non-compliance with the obligations under the Regulation to the terminal operator. If the complaint is not accepted, the complainant can appeal the terminal operator's decision to the Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority.

Section 3 of order 1236/2014 provides that a complaint about a ticket vendor's, travel agent's or tour operator's obligations under the Regulation must be forwarded to the ticket vendor, travel agent or tour operator. If the complaint concerns ship passenger rights in the port area and is not accepted, the complainant can appeal the reply from the vendor, travel agent or tour operator to the Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority.

b.3. Danish Appeals Boards Authority (DABA)
Section 9 of act 524/2015 allows consumers to bring complaints arising from an agreement between a consumer and an economic operator about the purchase of a product or a ser­vice before the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (DCCA). However, DABA took over this competence on 1 January 2017.

According to section 3 of order 65/2019, DABA now acts as a mediator related to complaints that do not concern a dispute resolution body covered by the consumer complaints act (forbrugerklageloven) and are filed by a consumer. From 1 January 2023 the price of the product or service, including sea voyages, must be at or above a limit of DKK 1,100. In 2021-2022, the limit was DKK 1,050. Adjustment of the minimum price takes place every three years.

Section 7 of order 65/2019 allows the Danish Consumer Complaints Board (DCCB) to consider a complaint in case mediation does not lead to an amicable solution and the consumer goes on to bring the com­plaint before DCCB. From 1 January 2023 the price of the product or service, including sea voyages, must be at or above a limit of DKK 1,100. In 2021-22, the limit was DKK 1,050. Adjustment of the minimum price takes place every three years.

b.4. The Danish Travel Industry Complaint Board
The Danish Travel Industry Complaint Board considers complaints about package tours, including package tours by ship. It is a private complaint board approved by the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs in pursuance of section 6 of act 524/2015 on alternative dispute resolution of consumer complaints.

c. Other issues
According to Article 2(4) Member States may exempt pas­senger voyages covered by public service obligations, public service contracts or integrated ser­vices from application of the Regulation, if national law secures the rights of passengers to a similar extent. Denmark has chosen not to use this option.

The Danish Maritime Authority has produced complaint forms, complaint guidelines as well as a summary of the Regulation here

An update of the guidelines took place in 2018. Section 3 of order 74/2013 on the rights of passengers provides that consumers must pay a fee of DKK 160 in order to submit a complaint under the Regula­tion and get the amount refunded if they are fully or partially successful. Passengers with reduced mobility can submit complaints free of charge and use a special complaint form for the purpose. The Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority and the Danish Consumer Complaints Board also provide guidance on complaints.

It follows from Regulation (EU) 524/2013 on online dispute resolution (ODR) for consumer disputes that disputes between a trader and a consumer from EEA States about goods and services purchased over the internet can be settled through the EU OTB website.

The parties can access and use the website free of charge in all official EU languages here

The Danish Maritime Authority and The Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority supervise compliance with the provisions of the Regulation in their respective areas of responsibility, cf. section 20 of the act on safety at sea (lov om sikkerhed til søs).

The Danish Maritime Authority carries out passenger rights inspections as part of mandatory inspections, i.e. renewal surveys of passenger ships and examinations of the soundness of ship operations in terms of safety (International Safety Management auditing). This implies that Dan­ish Maritime Authority surveyors carry out passenger rights inspections when they are on board ships and visit shipowners for other reasons, too. The inspections concern the following:

• Access conditions (article 9), i.e. that carriers have established non-discriminatory access conditions (9.1) and that information about them is avail­able to the public (9.2).
• Quality standards for assistance if the carrier has performed more than 100,000 commercial pas­senger movements over the previous year (article 13), i.e. that carriers have established quality standards (13.1 and 13.2) and that information about them is available to the public (13.3).
• Training procedures (article 14).
• Information about passenger rights (article 23), i.e. information about the content of the Regulation (23.1), including the right of complaint (23.3), and its availability to passenger on board ships.

The Authority cooperates with shipping companies and organizations for persons with reduced mobility during construction of new passenger ships. As part of the process, the Authority ensures that the parties carry out a dialogue to provide these passengers with appropriate conditions on board, including safe access, signage, communication and mobility. After completion of the construction phase, the Authority carries out a formal inspection to allow for final approval of the new passenger ship pursuant to, i.a., the rules on the rights of persons with reduced mobility.

Order 74/2013 requires carriers covered by the Regulation to notify the Danish Maritime Authority if they perform more than 100,000 commer­cial passenger services in a calendar year.

The act on safety at sea (lov om sikkerhed til søs) states that the Danish Maritime Authority can issue enforcement notes. Non-compliance with an enforcement note may trigger a fine, cf. section 28 of the act.

a. The Danish Maritime Authority

a.1. Control of ships
Complete statistics on the number of comments about non-compliance with the provisions of the Regulation are not available. Instead, the Authority followed the same procedure as in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 and drew a 2023 sample of survey reports with a representative portion of passenger ships covered by the Regulation in the two previous years. The 2023 sample included 12 reports, whereas the 2021 sample included 20 reports and the three previous samples 10 reports each.

The 2023 sample contained only 1 comment. In this case the Authority required implementation of a number of measures to establish safe passenger access between the ship and the quay. In comparison, the 2021 sample included no comments about violations of the Regulation in 2019-20. Instead, approvals and inspections of newly built passenger ships in 2019-20 led to 3 requirements for adaptations to ensure that all types of passengers, including disabled passengers, have equal opportunities for physical access, movement, accommodation and information on board.

The 2019 sample of survey reports caused 1 comment on non-compliance related to accessibility. The deficiency was corrected before the survey, and no sanctions were imposed. The 2017 sample did not reveal any non-conformities with the Regulation. The 2015 sample caused 2 comments about accessibility. These non-conformities were corrected before the survey, too, and no sanctions were imposed.

a.2. Complaints
In 2021-22 the Danish Maritime Authority received 11 complaints and 7 inquiries. This development represents a decrease compared to 2019-20, when the Authority received 29 complaints, 7 inquiries and 1 request for assistance from a foreign NEB, and a return to roughly the same level as in 2017-18, when the Authority received 8 complaints.

The Authority supported the passenger in 2 and did not support the passenger in 1 of the 11 2021-22 complaints. Further, the Authority decided not to deal with 2 cases outside its area of responsibility and 1 case in which the complainant failed to pay the mandatory appeal fee despite a reminder. In 2 cases the complainants withdrew their complaints, and in 2 other cases the Authority forwarded one to the Danish Appeals Boards Authority and the other to the Norwegian NEB. In 1 case, the shipowner voluntarily accommodated the passenger without case processing or decision making by the Authority.

At the beginning of the period 2021-22 the Authority received a significant number of telephone inquiries from travelers failing to show up for ferry departures due to Covid-19-related entry bans in the country of arrival and wanted to seek compensation from the ferry operator. The Authority explained that the Regulation did not allow for compensation in these cases, cf. item 6.4 in the Commission´s notice 2020/C 89 I/01 with interpretative guidelines on EU passenger rights regulations in the context of the developing situation with Covid-19.

a.3. Special cases
Nothing to report for 2021-22

b. The Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority
The Authority received 0 complaints related to the Regulation in 2021-22. This corresponds to developments in 2019-2020 and 2017-18, where the Authority also received 0 complaints and, consequently, did not apply sanctions for non-compliance with the Regulation.

c. The Danish Appeals Boards Authority
The Authority received 5 complaints about sea voyages in 2021 and 8 in 2022. 2 of the 13 complaints fell outside the Authority’s area of responsibility and were rejected, and the complainant withdrew the complaint in 1 case. Of the 10 remaining complaints, 4 were resolved and 6 were not resolved through mediation, and 1 of the 6 was subsequently brought before the Danish Consumer Complaints Board.

In comparison, the Authority received 0 complaints in 2019 and 1 in 2020 which fell outside its area of responsibility and was rejected.

In 2017, the Authority received 6 complaints and rejected 3 falling outside its area of responsibility. Further, the Authority forwarded 1 to the Danish Travel Industry Complaint Board and 1 to the Danish Maritime Authority and went on to resolve 1 through mediation. In 2018, the Authority received 10 complaints. The Authority rejected 1 falling outside its area of responsibility, and in 1 case the complainant withdrew the complaint. The Authority further transferred 2 complaints to the Danish Travel Industry Complaint Board and solved 4 through mediation. 1 of the 2 unresolved cases was later brought before the Danish Consumer Complaints Board.

The Danish Appeals Boards Authority mediates between consumers and traders and does therefore not impose sanctions for non-compliance with the regulation.

d. Danish Travel Industry Complaint Board
The Board did not deal with complaints under Regulation 1177/2010 in 2021-22.