Unlicensed agencies banned from using ATOL logo

Unlicensed travel firms will no longer be allowed to display the ATOL logo in their shop windows, on their brochures or on their websites.

Having just made the announcement, the Civil Aviation Authority in London will discuss enforcement of this ban at meetings with local trading standards officers in the coming days.

The restriction will have an impact on agents who sell holiday packages protected by ATOL who do not hold an ATOL themselves. Agents will be allowed window displays of ATOL-protected late deals as long as the actual ATOL holder’s name and number is also displayed. The ban relates to the ongoing, general display of the logos.

An ABTA spokesman welcomed the move, and said: “It is very sensible and we support it. The only people who can display the ABTA logo are ABTA members and we will get an injunction against anyone else using it.”

Advantage travel director Norman Gage was quoted as saying: “People do still have ATOL logos in windows, although our members do not.” Hundreds of agencies that have small business ATOLs will still display logos in their windows. These permit companies to organise travel packages for a maximum of 500 passengers each year.

The CAA said that purpose of the restriction was to prevent unlicensed firms from misleading consumers by displaying the ATOL logo.

A spokesman from the CAA said: “In the past, everything you bought was covered. Now so much is not, but the logo appears everywhere.”

“We expect the industry to pay attention. If an agent is not an ATOL-holder we want the logo to appear only on deals that are ATOL-protected. It has to be specific. An agent who does not have an ATOL cannot have an ATOL logo in their window.”

www.caa.co.uk