Firm faces late refund legal action

Online travel agent Lastminute.com has been threatened with court action by the competition watchdog for failing to pay out refunds to customers.

The company vowed to make £7m in payments by the end of January to 9,000 customers who had holidays cancelled due to the pandemic under a formal agreement with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

But the watchdog said £1m owed to 2,600 customers remains outstanding and, unless this is paid within seven days, court action will follow.

Lastminute.com is also accused of telling some package holiday customers to go directly to their airline to get the cost of their flight back, in breach of package holiday rules.

The CMA, described the situation as "wholly unacceptable”.