Tribunal: Air Canada must honour policy its chatbot made up

Air Canada was ordered to compensate a passenger after its website chatbot invented a bereavement fare policy, in a February 2024 ruling by British Columbia's Civil Resolution Tribunal that is still cited as the reference case for chatbot liability.

Jake Moffatt used the chatbot in November 2022 while booking flights to attend his grandmother's funeral. The chatbot told him he could apply for a reduced bereavement fare within 90 days of travel. The airline's actual policy, linked from the same page, said discounts could not be claimed after travel. When Moffatt applied, Air Canada refused.

Before the tribunal, Air Canada argued that it could not be held responsible for information provided by the chatbot, which it described as a separate legal entity. Tribunal member Christopher Rivers rejected the argument, writing that the airline was responsible for all information on its website, whether it came from a static page or a chatbot, and that it had not explained why customers should have to double-check one part of its site against another.

The tribunal awarded Moffatt about C$812 in damages and fees, the difference between the fare he paid and the bereavement rate he had been promised.

The amount was small but the principle was not. The ruling established in a public decision that a company owns its chatbot's statements, and it is now routinely cited by regulators and lawyers discussing accountability for customer-facing AI agents.