Nikiforos Diamandouros, the European Ombudsman, has criticised the misleading information published by the European Commission during the volcanic ash crisis in 2010. The investigation followed a complaint from the European Regions Airline Association about inaccurate information concerning compensation for delayed luggage.

The European Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration in the EU institutions and bodies. Following a complaint from the European Regions Airline Association about inaccurate information given to air passengers furing the volcanic ash crisis, the Ombudsman asked the Commission about the documents published on 4 of May 2010 on different websites for affected air passengers, including a Q&A document. The European Regions Airline Association sent an urgent e-mail to the Commission the next day drawing its attention to what it considered to be misleading information.

The Ombudsman investigation concluded that the Q&A document wrongly implied that passengers had an automatic right to compensation in all cases involving delayed luggage. Besides, the Commission concluded in two weeks that part of the Q&A document was indeed misleading and afterwards, it took more than a month to remove it from the websites. In addition, Ombudsman concluded that the length of time it took the Commission to withdraw the document was unacceptable.

Mr. Diamandouros has announced that, depending on the information the Commission will supply him with by the end of May 2011, an investigation into a potential systemic problem may be necessary because this is the second time that the Ombudsman has found that the Commission published misleading air passenger information.