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1 1 (March 1, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govektc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: L a Congressional_______ A Research Service- Airline Deregulation Act of 1978: Preemption of State Consumer Protection Laws March 1, 2023 Recent widespread flight cancellations and delays have raised questions about the respective roles of the states and the federal government in protecting airline consumers. In August 2022, a group of 38 state attorneys general sent a letter to Congress arguing that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) does not adequately protect airline consumers, and urging Congress to enact legislation authorizing states to enforce state and federal consumer protection laws against airlines. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (ADA) expressly preempts states from enacting or enforcing laws related to a price, route, or service of an air carrier. The Supreme Court has interpreted this provision as broadly preempting the enforcement of state laws against airlines in consumer protection contexts, thus making DOT the primary consumer protection authority overseeing airlines. Enabling states to enforce their consumer protection laws against airlines would thus generally require Congress to exempt such laws from preemption under the ADA. This Legal Sidebar provides background on the ADA and federal preemption principles, and examines how the Supreme Court has interpreted the scope of preemption under the ADA. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 Before 1978, the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (FAA) authorized the federal government to closely regulate air carriers. Under the FAA, the now-abolished Civil Aeronautics Board controlled air carrier prices, routes, and services. States also could regulate air carriers, however, because the FAA contained a saving provision that preserved pre-existing state statutory and common-law remedies. In enacting the ADA, Congress sought to place maximum reliance on competitive market forces to encourage an air transportation system relying on actual and potential competition ... to provide efficiency, innovation, and low prices. Congress thus included an express preemption provision in the ADA to ensure that the States would not undo federal deregulation with regulation of their own. The current version of that provision, 49 U.S.C. § 41713(b)(1), states: Except as provided in this subsection, a State, political subdivision of a State, or political authority of at least 2 States may not enact or enforce a law, regulation, or other provision having the force Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10925 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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