Air Canada chatbot invents a bereavement-fare refund policy
- occurred
- 2022-11-11
- reported
- 2024-02-14
- location
- Vancouver, CA
- domain
- consumer
- agent system
- Air Canada website support chatbot
- reporter
- VAIDDB editorial
- origin
- editorial
== SUMMARY ==
Air Canada's chatbot told a grieving passenger he could claim a bereavement fare retroactively; a Canadian tribunal held the airline liable for negligent misrepresentation.
== DESCRIPTION ==
On 11 November 2022 Jake Moffatt asked Air Canada's website chatbot about bereavement fares after his grandmother's death. The chatbot stated he could buy a full-price ticket and apply for the reduced bereavement rate within 90 days of travel. Air Canada's actual tariff does not allow retroactive claims and the refund was refused.
In Moffatt v. Air Canada, 2024 BCCRT 149, the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal found the airline owed a duty of care to users of its chatbot and had negligently misrepresented its policy. Air Canada argued that the chatbot was "a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions" — a submission the tribunal called remarkable. It awarded C$650.88 in damages plus interest and fees, C$812.02 in total.
== ROOT CAUSE ==
The chatbot was not constrained to the airline's actual tariff, and the operator assumed automated output did not bind the company.
== MITIGATION ==
Air Canada was ordered to pay the damages within 14 days and subsequently withdrew the chatbot. The decision is now the leading precedent for operator liability for agent output.
== REFERENCES ==
- news Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline's chatbot — Ars Technica, 2024-02-20
- news Air Canada found liable for chatbot's bad advice on plane tickets — CBC, 2024-02-16
- court filing Moffatt v. Air Canada, 2024 BCCRT 149 — B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal, 2024-02-14
== INVESTIGATION ==
Small-claims proceeding. Held Air Canada responsible for all information on its website including chatbot output; rejected the argument that the chatbot was a separate legal entity; awarded C$812.02.
== VAID LEVEL 2: INCIDENT ==
Significant failure of a safety provision with no actual harm.
- Failure of one control layer (e.g. tool permission, rate limit, filter).
- Unintended side effects contained to a single system or tenant.
- Exposure of limited internal data without external propagation.