{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-12T06:14:46.454Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"tribunal-decision","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2022-british-columbia-air-canada-website-chatbot-bereavement-fare-advice-tribunal-orders-compensation","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'they interacted with a support chatbot'; 'a chatbot is an automated system that provides information to a person using a website in response to that person'; 'If you need to travel immediately or have already travelled and would like to submit your ticket for a reduced bereavement rate, kindly do so within 90 days of the date your ticket was issued'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The tribunal records that on 11 November 2022 the passenger interacted with a support chatbot on Air Canada's website about bereavement fares, and that the chatbot's response, in a screenshot in evidence, said a ticket could be submitted for a reduced bereavement rate within 90 days of issue by someone who had already travelled.","causal_attribution":"Documented by the tribunal decision; the screenshot was in evidence and the tribunal later found the representation inaccurate."},{"id":"c2","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'the bereavement policy does not apply to requests for bereavement consideration after travel has been completed'; 'booked a one-way flight from Vancouver to Toronto, departing on November 12, for $794.98'; 'relying on the same information, they booked a one-way flight from Toronto to Vancouver, departing on November 18, for $845.38'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The tribunal records that the airline's bereavement webpage said the policy did not apply after travel was completed, and that relying on the chatbot's information the passenger booked one-way flights between Vancouver and Toronto for $794.98 and $845.38.","causal_attribution":"Findings of fact in the decision."},{"id":"c3","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'an Air Canada representative responded and admitted the chatbot had provided'; 'said Air Canada had noted the issue so it could update the chatbot'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The tribunal records that on 8 February 2023 an Air Canada representative admitted the chatbot had provided misleading words and said the airline had noted the issue so it could update the chatbot.","causal_attribution":"Documented by the decision from the airline's email in evidence."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'This is a remarkable submission.'; 'I find Air Canada did not take reasonable care to ensure its chatbot was accurate.'; 'would not have flown last-minute if they knew they would have to pay the full fare'; 'a total of $812.02, broken down as follows'; '$650.88 in damages'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Air Canada has been ordered to pay compensation to a grieving grandchild who claimed they were misled into purchasing full-price flight tickets by an ill-informed chatbot.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'has been ordered to pay compensation after its chatbot gave a customer inaccurate information'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The tribunal found negligent misrepresentation, rejected the airline's suggestion that the chatbot was a separate legal entity responsible for its own actions, found that Air Canada did not take reasonable care to ensure its chatbot was accurate, accepted that the passenger relied on the chatbot and would not have flown last-minute at full fare, and ordered the airline to pay $812.02 including $650.88 in damages.","causal_attribution":"The tribunal's own findings and order; the news reports relay the decision."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Last March, Air Canada’s chief information officer Mel Crocker told the Globe and Mail that the airline had launched the chatbot as an AI “experiment.”'; 'Air Canada’s initial investment in customer service AI technology was much higher than the cost of continuing to pay workers to handle simple queries.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Ars Technica reports that Air Canada's chief information officer told the Globe and Mail in March 2023 that the airline had launched the chatbot as an AI experiment, and describes the airline's investment in customer service AI technology.","causal_attribution":"The airline's own description of the chatbot, relayed by Ars Technica from a Globe and Mail interview that was not inspected; it describes the chatbot in general and does not say how the system produced the answer at issue."}],"effects":[{"label":"full fares paid in reliance on the chatbot's inaccurate bereavement-fare answer; $650.88 in damages found","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://decisions.civilresolutionbc.ca/crt/crtd/en/item/525448/index.do","kind":"court_record","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-12 through the tribunal's public decision page (iframe content); no translation was needed and the research agent (an AI) read the text directly.","independence_group":"bccrt-2024-149-decision"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/air-canada-chatbot-lawsuit-1.7116416","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-12; the report relays the tribunal decision and quotes it, so it shares the decision's independence group.","independence_group":"bccrt-2024-149-decision"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/air-canada-chatbot-lawsuit","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-12; the report relays the tribunal decision, so it shares the decision's independence group.","independence_group":"bccrt-2024-149-decision"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/air-canada-must-honor-refund-policy-invented-by-airlines-chatbot/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-12 by the second researcher (an AI) from the publisher page; no translation was needed. The article relays the tribunal decision and, separately, remarks Air Canada's chief information officer made to the Globe and Mail in March 2023; only those relayed remarks are cited here, and the Globe and Mail interview was not inspected.","independence_group":"globe-and-mail-2023-air-canada-cio-interview"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["finance","everyday_life","justice"],"unknowns":["What kind of AI system the chatbot was and how it produced this answer; the airline gave the tribunal no information about its nature, and its chief information officer's description of the chatbot as an AI experiment is known only through Ars Technica's relay of a Globe and Mail interview.","Whether Air Canada changed the chatbot after the case."],"geography":{"basis":"The decision records the booking of flights between Vancouver and Toronto through Air Canada's website after a death in Ontario, and the tribunal is the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal; where the passenger lives is not used to locate anything.","court_countries":["CA"],"event_countries":["CA"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published on the tribunal decision, which documents the website chatbot's inaccurate answer, the passenger's reasonable reliance on it, the resulting full-fare purchase and an order for damages. The causal finding is the tribunal's; the chatbot's description as AI rests on the airline's chief information officer's remarks as relayed by Ars Technica, and how it produced this answer is recorded as unknown.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-12"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The tribunal records the chatbot's own generated answer (a screenshot saying a reduced bereavement rate could be claimed within 90 days of ticket issue after travel) and finds that the passenger reasonably relied on it to buy full-fare tickets, that the airline did not take reasonable care to ensure the chatbot was accurate, and that the reliance caused the loss. The tribunal describes the chatbot as an automated system answering a user's prompts and notes that Air Canada gave it no information about the chatbot's nature. Ars Technica reports that Air Canada's chief information officer told the Globe and Mail in March 2023 that the airline had launched the chatbot as an AI experiment (c5); how the system produced this particular answer is not established.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Air Canada website chatbot wrongly told a bereaved passenger a fare reduction could be claimed after travel; BC tribunal ordered the airline to pay damages","summary":"On 11 November 2022, after a grandparent died in Ontario, a passenger asked the support chatbot on Air Canada's website about bereavement fares. The chatbot's response, in a screenshot later filed in evidence, said a ticket could be submitted for a reduced bereavement rate within 90 days of issue, including after travel, while the airline's bereavement webpage said the policy did not apply after travel was completed. Relying on that answer, the passenger bought full-fare one-way tickets between Vancouver and Toronto for $794.98 and $845.38 and applied for the reduction on 17 November. In February 2023 an Air Canada representative admitted the chatbot had provided misleading words. On 14 February 2024 the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal found negligent misrepresentation, rejected the airline's argument that it could not be held liable for its chatbot, found it had not taken reasonable care to ensure the chatbot was accurate, and ordered it to pay $812.02, including $650.88 in damages.","incidentDate":"2022-11-11","incidentEndDate":"2022-11-16","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2024-02-14","aiSystem":"Support chatbot on Air Canada's website answering a question about bereavement fares; the airline's chief information officer described it as an AI experiment (per Ars Technica), and the airline gave the tribunal no information about its nature","aiProduct":"Air Canada chatbot","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["financial_loss"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The tribunal found that the passenger relied on the Air Canada chatbot's inaccurate answer about bereavement fares, paid $1,630.36 in full fares, and was owed $650.88 in damages, which with interest and fees the airline was ordered to pay.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"established","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the applicant who relied on the chatbot's answer when buying full-fare tickets and to whom the tribunal awarded damages. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"CA","platformType":"chatbot","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://decisions.civilresolutionbc.ca/crt/crtd/en/item/525448/index.do","primarySourceLabel":"Moffatt v. Air Canada, 2024 BCCRT 149, BC Civil Resolution Tribunal, 14 February 2024","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-12T03:22:10.337605+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-12T03:22:10.337605+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["customer-service-chatbot","airline","wrong-information","tribunal-decision","negligent-misrepresentation","canada"]}]}