Teletext Holidays to face court action over coronavirus holiday refunds

TELETEXT Holidays is facing court action over claims it has not done enough to refund customers for cancelled holidays during the Covid crisis.

Consumer watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a legal battle against the company to get outstanding refunds owed to customers paid.

The CMA added that Truly Holidays, which owns Teletext Holidays, has also not done enough to ensure future refunds are paid within 14 days.

It follows an investigation launched by the regulator into Teletext Holidays in February this year.

Hundreds of people filed complaints for not being refunded for their package holidays that were cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic.

In May, the firm promised to refund £7million to customers who were owed cash due to the cancellations.

It said it would cough up the cash by August 31 – but the CMA claims some refunds remain unpaid and the company has not done enough to change its refunds policy.

The watchdog said it wrote to the company on September 16 warning it would take court action unless it took urgent action to shake-up its refunds process.

Now, it has filed a court order to ensure that the refunds Teletext Holidays is yet to pay back to customers will be dished out immediately and within 14 days.

CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said: "Companies must abide by consumer protection law and treat their customers fairly.

"After engaging with Teletext Holidays extensively, we are now requesting a court order to make sure that the company immediately pays back the money it still owes to customers and refunds people within 14 days, going forward."

A date for the hearing has not been set yet – if you're a customer still waiting on a refund, we'll update this story when we know more.

The Sun has contacted Teletext Holidays for comment.

It's not the only company which has recently faced heat from the CMA.

British Airways and Ryanair were investigated by the watchdog into whether the airlines should have offered money back to holidaymakers who couldn't legally take flights because of Covid.

But the airlines have since been told they don't have to refund customers for these lockdown flights – marking a bitter blow to out-of-pocket customers.

Online travel agent LastMinute was also forced to pay back £7million to customers for cancelled holidays during the pandemic.

The CMA investigated the firm after receiving hundreds of complaints about its refund process.

More than 9,000 customers whose holidays were cancelled by the website were waiting for refunds worth more than £7million.

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