Airlines have to pay passengers compensation when flights are cancelled or delayed due to unforeseen technical problems, the European Union's top court ruled on Thursday, handing a victory to consumers.
The case was brought by a Dutch couple whose flight from Quito, Ecuador, to Amsterdam was delayed by 29 hours. KLM refused to pay compensation on the grounds that the technical faults that caused the delay were extraordinary circumstances.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/ ... LE20150917

EU Court of Justice of the European Union
Press Release Luxembourg, 17 September 2015
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... hg-7I3xcGw

Judgment;
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/d ... id=1095447


*Article 3(1)(b) of that regulation, entitled ‘Scope’, provides:
1. This Regulation shall apply:
(b)to passengers departing from an airport located in a third country to an airport situated in the territory of a Member State to which the Treaty applies, unless they received benefits or compensation and were given assistance in that third country, if the operating air carrier of the flight concerned is a Community carrier.’

**As regards the first of those conditions, it is common ground that KLM is an EU carrier.