Italy’s competition authority has opened a formal investigation into easyJet over alleged unfair commercial practices linked to how the airline presents baggage fees during online bookings for return flights.
The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), Italy’s antitrust watchdog, announced the probe on Tuesday, 26 May 2026. The regulator said easyJet‘s website and mobile application displayed only the average combined price for checked baggage and sports equipment on round trips, while automatically defaulting to the bundled purchase of the service for both legs, even when customers had no intention of buying it for the full journey.
According to the AGCM, passengers who wished to add baggage for only one leg of a return flight were required to interrupt the online booking process to manually override the pre-selected default. The regulator said this approach could mislead consumers about the real cost of each sector and may constitute an unfair and aggressive commercial practice under Italian consumer protection law.
The investigation will assess whether easyJet‘s booking system created unclear pricing conditions and limited consumers’ ability to make fully informed purchasing decisions. easyJet was not immediately available for comment and had not issued a public statement at the time of the announcement.
This is not the first time easyJet has faced scrutiny from Italian authorities. In May 2021, the AGCM imposed a 2.8 million euro fine on the airline alongside Ryanair and Volotea after all three carriers failed to provide cash refunds for flights cancelled when Italy lifted its COVID-19 travel restrictions, offering vouchers instead. easyJet challenged that fine, but the Lazio Regional Administrative Court in Rome dismissed the appeal in February 2025.
The current probe follows a separate high-profile intervention by the same authority. Last December, the AGCM imposed a 255 million euro fine on Ryanair over what it described as an abusive strategy towards travel agencies, in which the airline restricted third-party websites from accessing its inventory in favour of a direct distribution model. That case set a record for the regulator and signalled its intent to scrutinise airline sales practices at scale.
The easyJet case also follows a ruling earlier in 2026 by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, which found that the airline’s “from £5.99” claim for cabin bags was unattainable on most routes and therefore misleading. easyJet subsequently amended its website to clarify that fees vary by demand, route, flight date, and time of booking.
Ancillary revenue, which includes baggage fees, seat selection, and priority boarding, has become a central income stream for low-cost carriers across Europe. The way these services are sold online, particularly through default selections, pre-ticked options, and bundled pricing, has drawn increasing criticism from consumer groups and is attracting growing regulatory attention across the European Union.
easyJet operates a fleet of approximately 355 aircraft across 1,207 routes, serving 164 airports in 38 countries. Italy is one of its key markets. The outcome of the AGCM investigation could have implications not only for easyJet but for other carriers using similar online sales structures in the country. If the authority finds a breach of consumer law, easyJet could face financial sanctions and be required to restructure how it presents baggage fees on return journeys across its booking platforms.
The AGCM has not set a timeline for the conclusion of the investigation.
