[nehalem]

Allowing punitive damages would be a major change to the foundations of German civil law. German law (mostly and traditionally) thinks of damages as a means to make the other party whole rather than to incentivise a certain behaviour of the injurer. Hence German law is utmost reluctant to give anyone more than they suffered in losses.

Adding some obscure consumer protection rule is a much less controversial change to the law.

The traditional German legal doctrine sees the enforcement of fair business practices rather in the hands of the authorities than in those of consumers. Of course, there is little evidence of this to work in this or similar contexts.

[ginko]

> Allowing punitive damages would be a major change to the foundations of German civil law.

There ARE punitive damages the airline has to pay you if they cancel or delay your flight. It's EU law. See the sibling comment.

For instance if they cancel or delay a flight over 1500 km in the EU you're entitled to 400 Euro compensation on top of cost of ticket and other expenses you had due to it.

[hnaccount_rng]

That's not punitive though. That's to compensate the traveler for caused inconvenience. It also happens to work as some form of punishment yes, but it's by far not high enough to work as a deterrence.

[nehalem]

You are correct that the provisions of EU law can be construed as punitive damages. That’s why I emphasised the German legal tradition. Also, those damages do not apply in all possible situations of cancelled flights and they do not punish withholding refunds for no reason. If the airline cancels three weeks prior and then refuses to pay, the EU law does not apply and the behaviour we would like to disincentivise is not to honour the refund claims rather than the cancellation.

[Dylan16807]

> German law (mostly and traditionally) thinks of damages as a means to make the other party whole rather than to incentivise a certain behaviour of the injurer.

Does that include payment for time spent seeking a verdict?

[Arnt]

Often but not invariably.

[Certhas]

Well punishment is for Strafrecht.

And do you have evidence that the US style works? Or was that just a throwaway "of course the state doesn't work!" comment without justification?