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25 Air & Space Law. 1 (2012-2013)

handle is hein.journals/airspaclaw25 and id is 1 raw text is: IR

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AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

THE
EER
VOLUME 25, NUMBER 1, 2012

Aviation Needs a Safety
Privilege ASAP
I By David J. A. Hayes III

ecent case law and Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) enforcement actions raise the question of
hether an evidentiary privilege is necessary to
promote and protect the disclosure of safety data, infor-
mation, and reports prepared and submitted through vol-
untary disclosure programs. Voluntary disclosure has
been essential to promoting safety in the post-deregula-
tion aviation industry. With decreasing resources for
oversight and surveillance, the FAA must rely on aviation
industry stakeholders, including air carriers, repair sta-
tions, pilots, mechanics, dispatchers, and flight atten-
dants, to bring forward important safety issues and con-
cerns. An evidentiary privilege protecting such safety

information would allow the reporter to decline to provide
evidence or bar such safety information from being used
in a judicial or other adversarial proceeding, thereby elimi-
nating the deterrent to disclosure of such information.
In general, a privilege exists to protect confidential
communications and facilitate proper functioning of the
legal system. In the context of safety data, information,
and reports prepared under the protection of a voluntary
disclosure program, a safety privilege would protect dis-
closed data and further the purpose of collecting and ana-
lyzing such data-an enhanced level of safety and the pre-
vention of accidents and incidents, which often lead to
continued on page 13

Regulation of Airfare Advertising in
the United States and Canada
I By Edward W. Sauer and Carlos P. Martins

uring the past 12 months,
both the United States and
Canada have undertaken
substantial reform of their respec-
tive regulations governing the
advertisement of airfares. As part
of a sweeping package of consum-
er protection rules, the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT) has renewed
enforcement of a decades-old policy requiring airlines
to state the full fare (including all taxes, fees, and sur-
charges) that consumers must pay for air travel. DOT
has also extended this rule to ticket agents, a term that

Forum on Air

includes many travel agents, tour operators, and travel
websites.' Canada, at the time of this writing, is consid-
ering the adoption of federal rules analogous to those
now in force in the United States. Although consumer
protection legislation of general application that applies
to the advertising of airfares has been in place in some
Canadian provinces, new regulations will likely sup-
plant the provincial enactments, creating a more har-
monized environment.
This article describes these developments in both the
United States and Canada and poses some questions
concerning the operation of the new regimes.
continued on page 18
and Space Law

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