It’s common around the globe to see priority security lanes for premium passengers. While security officials are responsible for conducting the actual screening of passengers and bags, airlines operating in terminals often have quite a bit of say in the flow of things, including the ability to create priority security lanes.
Germany is a country where you’ll find priority security lanes, and a German law professor has just published an interesting paper on why he believes this actually constitutes criminal bribery, and even those taking advantage of priority security are engaged in an illegal act.
It’s an interesting argument that I figured would make for a fun discussion (thanks to Constance and Klaus for flagging this)…
In this post:
Why priority security may violate German laws
A lawyer claims that priority security at airports violates Germany’s laws. The crux of the argument is simple — under German law and in front of German authorities, everyone is considered equal when it comes to carrying out public tasks.
In 2022, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH) formally rejected the establishment of priority immigration queues at airports, since it would violate the concept of everyone being equal under the law. The argument here is that the same should apply to priority security lanes:
- The Federal Police in Germany oversees security screening at airports, and outsources that to private security companies; meanwhile the management of queues is outsourced to the airport operators, which work with airlines
- Airport operators are getting paid by airlines for offering fast track security lanes; in other words, part of the price for a premium flight ticket is used by airlines to buy the right to prioritize certain people at security checks
- It’s not surprising that the Federal Police allows the queues to be outsourced and controlled by a third party, since it reduces the government’s workload
- While the people controlling security lanes don’t directly work for the government, it’s argued that they’re performing a public task, since the queue forming in front of a security lane is essential for carrying out security, and the tasks are inseparable
- The fact that the police tolerates and oversees the use of priority security lanes means that public observers can only assume that the task is carried out with approval from the police
This lawyer argues that airport employees who are overseeing fast track security are committing a crime, and are liable for prosecution for bribery. Furthermore, those passengers using fast track security could be providing criminal aid and abetting with their contribution to maintaining the system.
The paper finishes by arguing that everyone who reads this story can no longer deny not being aware of the illegal activity they’re engaged in, and “all actors are therefore urgently advised to end the current fast lane practice immediately.” Hah.
Is there any merit to this argument?
I’m not a legal expert of any sort, let alone an expert on German law. So I’m not sure what exactly to make of this, though I’ll certainly share my (uninformed) thoughts.
I mean, to be perfectly honest, I think there’s some merit to this argument. It sounds like Germany is in the same boat as the United States when it comes to the current implementation of priority services at airports. In the United States, we don’t have priority immigration at airports for premium passengers, but we do have priority security.
The argument either for or against this is very much based on technicalities, and how you choose to view the distribution of responsibilities. Everyone is the same in the eyes of the government when they reach the actual screening checkpoint, but up until that point, is the government in charge or not?
If priority security were suddenly banned under German law, one has to wonder what that would mean for facilities like the Lufthansa First Class Terminal, which have private security screening. Would that be considered unfair, since there are restrictions on who can use that checkpoint? Or would it be fair, since the Lufthansa First Class Terminal is private and separate from the terminal, and the security checkpoint is just about allowing eligible passengers into a certain area?
Bottom line
A German lawyer is arguing that priority security at airports is illegal. German law requires everyone be considered equal by German authorities. Currently priority immigration queues aren’t allowed, while priority security screening is allowed.
It seems the reason for this distinction is that the airport operators control the queues, so it’s not technically the government discriminating against some passengers. The counterargument is that the German government is delegating this task, and what matters is what task is being performed, rather than what party is performing the task.
What do you make of this argument about priority security in Germany?
no, this is the condescending euro of old attitude masking in "egalitarianism" bc if you know europeans, the idea of business class esp in shenghen is something most dont do and honestly, im 1/2 European and spent a lot of time there, but this is old school socialism.
the hybrid approach most countries, incl Germany, do with socialism and capitalism is something they only must compound esp for forieign tourists helping the GDP and...
no, this is the condescending euro of old attitude masking in "egalitarianism" bc if you know europeans, the idea of business class esp in shenghen is something most dont do and honestly, im 1/2 European and spent a lot of time there, but this is old school socialism.
the hybrid approach most countries, incl Germany, do with socialism and capitalism is something they only must compound esp for forieign tourists helping the GDP and we also cant conflate "fast track" or priority security with the actual immigration line if applicable which never has a fast lane....LHR used to if im correct back when but not now. in amsterdam u have priority security but the immigration line is for all. unless u have their local "previum" thing. blah blah I bet this guy has never bothered for a biz class seat, thinks points systems are a detriment, and basically is a threat to the travelers who contribute to these countries whose GDP is hurt with lower tourism. I roll my eyes at these guys. the world has evolved, I love European ideologies but some old people simply dont understand it's 2024. nope. go to sleep, boomer
Well Lufthansa was state owned until 1994, so during that time when they had Business/First class were they also engaged in bribery?
Ok, I saw this coming so I purposely did not read the article so I wouldn’t be forewarned!
“under German law and in front of German authorities, everyone is considered equal when it comes to carrying out public tasks”?
Everyone is considered equal when the government is carrying out public tasks upon those trying to accessing secured German intelligence and military facilities? Not really.
The paper is flawed. If people living with a disability were in the 1hour+ queue at BER - instead of the accessibility queue; everybody else would have to walk through excrement and urine.
This professor should really busy himself with real social injustices that happen in this world.
Too bad they do not have such premium services at the DMV in the US and We are forced to line up and wait our turn with the proletariat. How outrageous for a capitalist country like the USA.
By this argument it would appear that for equality all arriving passengers should queue up at the same queues no matter their passport or any other criterion.
So instead of the EU line and the plebes line there should only be one line!
The different queues at passport control are based on the law however, and more importantly, they are queues for different checks.
EU citizens essentially go through an ID check. All that needs to be done is verify their identity, EU citizenship and check them against SIS alerts. (The same applys to EFTA, etc. citizens).
Third country citizens go through immigration check where their eligibility to enter Schengen (or an individual non-Schengen member state) must be...
The different queues at passport control are based on the law however, and more importantly, they are queues for different checks.
EU citizens essentially go through an ID check. All that needs to be done is verify their identity, EU citizenship and check them against SIS alerts. (The same applys to EFTA, etc. citizens).
Third country citizens go through immigration check where their eligibility to enter Schengen (or an individual non-Schengen member state) must be determined, supporting documents may be requested, etc. There's also quite a lot of work with checking for previous overstays (though this is bound to get much better with EES which will automate it instead of officers having to go through stamps).
The point of having two queues is to ensure that people who only need a brief ID check that takes less than a minute per person (EU citizens et al) won't get stuck behind someone whose bank statements are being lustered. Two queues, two functions. Although EU citizens can of course use all passports queue too, that's the only cheat here.
So, not the same thing. I mean, the paper is still a nonsense, there's nothing ilegal about it. But the border situation is not comparable.
@Mark : makes sense, but the same would apply for immigration queues. Everyone is treated equal by the immigration officer, but queuing is different. This however has already be considered illegal by a german court.
Now, for "equality under law" : what about speedy lines at US immigration for US citizens, and lenghty ones for all others ? (Same applies at EU airports for EU/non EU citizens).
I have suffered some extremely long lines a t US immigration. Holding a Canadian Passport and Nexus we totally missed our connecting flight in SEA arriving from Canada into their horrid new international arrivals area.
Passing through Miami a few years ago from the UK on BA in J we missed 4 connecting flights to Bermuda because Canadians had to line up with the rest of the world who were being fingerprinted and eye scanned....
I have suffered some extremely long lines a t US immigration. Holding a Canadian Passport and Nexus we totally missed our connecting flight in SEA arriving from Canada into their horrid new international arrivals area.
Passing through Miami a few years ago from the UK on BA in J we missed 4 connecting flights to Bermuda because Canadians had to line up with the rest of the world who were being fingerprinted and eye scanned. We were in line for almost 3 hours (but did not need biometric id). The immigration agent at the next queue was US passports only and sat there on his finger the whole time. I asked if we could use the line as it had been customary for both US and Canadians to do so but he snarled nastily and sent us scurrying away.
That's just bad airport management. When there are loooong queues at LAX (i.e. every afternoon), the folks organising the queues move international travellers out of that queue and quickly over to the American passenger's queues whenever their lines get shorter.
The argument of the author of that paper is utter nonsense.
Since anyone can buy these services (i.e. purchase a premium ticket) everyone IS treated the same.
There is no law or legal principle that would prohibit the government from selling tiered services as long as everyone can buy them in the same way.
The government isn't selling airport security checks as tiered services though, you are paying the excatly same xy,az Euro fee as part of your air ticket irrespective of class of travel or frequent flyer status.
So it's the privately owned airports (selling this priority service to airlines) and airlines (passing on the costs+margin to the passengers) who do earn money by artificially gatekeeping access to the government service.
So yeah, the fair solution would...
The government isn't selling airport security checks as tiered services though, you are paying the excatly same xy,az Euro fee as part of your air ticket irrespective of class of travel or frequent flyer status.
So it's the privately owned airports (selling this priority service to airlines) and airlines (passing on the costs+margin to the passengers) who do earn money by artificially gatekeeping access to the government service.
So yeah, the fair solution would be for the government to offer the tiered service itself, directly paid & accessible to all passengers without the airport & airlines earning any of that money/bundling it into their products.
Last time I was in Frankfurt I saw what I could only imagine was a lawyer dressed up and headed through priority security. Nobody else, though.
He seemed pretty happy.
;-)
To be fair, just because you saw one lawyer taking advantage of a priority system doesn't mean that all lawyers are fine with it and take advantage of such.
The law professor's argument is flawed as he/she is conflating security and queuing together. These are 2 separate activities. When a first class passenger receives priority security at an airport, what the passenger actually get is priority queuing. The passenger would go through the same security procedure as every other passenger. Therefore, the passenger is treated the same as every other passenger under the law. The queuing order is not a legal issue as jumping...
The law professor's argument is flawed as he/she is conflating security and queuing together. These are 2 separate activities. When a first class passenger receives priority security at an airport, what the passenger actually get is priority queuing. The passenger would go through the same security procedure as every other passenger. Therefore, the passenger is treated the same as every other passenger under the law. The queuing order is not a legal issue as jumping a queue while socially unacceptable, is not a crime. In addition, the security personnel outsourced by the government is not there to enforce queuing order. Their job is make sure passengers do not bring harmful objects onto airplanes and for that, there is no priority given to any passenger.
1 False. Private companies such as airports & airlines don't have any business in gatekeeping access to government services. And especially not if they do have a defacto local monopoly.
2 Preserving the order at the checkpoint (which is including proper queing) is part of security. If it was a mess, criminals could easily sneek through as chaotic situations are an ideal cover.
Preserving order is important and queuing scheme should not create chaos that could endanger airport security procedure being executed. However, the queuing scheme of priority security doesn't create higher security risks and therefore the government has no grounds to interfer.
And express mail is bribery of postal workers.
Well, in communism some are always more equal than others. And Germany has become a communist country over the last 30 years, in my view.
I can't wait for tomorrow when Gary Leff posts about this too, saying that Lucky brought up an interesting item and he wanted to explore it as well, which is Gary speak for "thank god there is something I can cross post from OMAAT so my site can actually get some traffic for once."
Yep... I am of German Origin.
Literal rigidity is part of our heritage.
Even when it is absolutely ridiculous.
They don't have premium lines in Taiwan airports either.
lolol defense counsel would have a hay day with this one
That's all well and good as long as flight crew, diplomats, government VIPs, etc. stand in the same lines as me.
Hopefully this lawyer won't find out that they have First Class in German trains. Otherwise I will be accused of 'bribery' for traveling only in First with seat reservation.
The FCT could be fine... anyone can use it, but only FC passengers are transported by LH to planes. So while anyone could use security, it would lead no where for non FC passengers, as they would have to leave and re-enter security through the main terminal to get on a plane.
We don't have priority immigration? What is Global Entry?
not really priority in the same way, as the application process isn't conditioned on your fare; rather it's just a matter of having an eligible travel and/or residency document and successfully passing the screening
This topic has been around for quiet some time already. To call this bribery is pretty aggressive. However, a few years back there were some forum discussions if non-premium passengers could just use priority lanes by arguing with staff. There were some reports about automatic gates (in DUS I think?) just letting people pass anyway into the priority lane, even if non-premium/elite.
When I flew LH first class long time ago and transited at FRA, the priority security guy won't let me use the priority lane even though LH transfer desk staff repeatedly told me I should be able to use it. From the moment I saw this guy I knew something was off but I had no power to enforce him to let me use the priority lane. I felt like it was due to my...
When I flew LH first class long time ago and transited at FRA, the priority security guy won't let me use the priority lane even though LH transfer desk staff repeatedly told me I should be able to use it. From the moment I saw this guy I knew something was off but I had no power to enforce him to let me use the priority lane. I felt like it was due to my race but I have no proof but sometimes I feel it and this was one of those moments... Overall I find Germans to be very racist (although I realized it many years after the incident) and they also hate it if nongermans have the priorities or superiorities such as Asian or black people use the priority lane or flying on first class etc. it is just so bad...
The actual part outsourced is the screening, and under that part everybody is treated equal. The lines match the ticket class purchased or the status lines that airlines are willing to pay for. The premise that a bribery is paid is far fetched. In the US with TSA pre and Global entry the preferential treatment is based on accepting a risk assessment which takes work and is paid for by the PAX before being granted...
The actual part outsourced is the screening, and under that part everybody is treated equal. The lines match the ticket class purchased or the status lines that airlines are willing to pay for. The premise that a bribery is paid is far fetched. In the US with TSA pre and Global entry the preferential treatment is based on accepting a risk assessment which takes work and is paid for by the PAX before being granted benefits. Germany does not have TSA pre and on immigration closest to Global entry is EasyPass RTP.
Germans love having superfluous rules to follow, so I'll buy it
Finland is equally communist :D But here the problem was solved by claiming that waiting times are more or less the same for prio and non-prio pax anyway so the security queue labelled as priority does not offer any benefit to those allowed to use it. Which may or may not be true.
I wonder if FCT would pass that professor's scrutiny because only select pax have access to that building.
The issue with the professor's article/opinion is his assumption, that there is an extra fee for using the fast lane. However, there is regularly an equal payment for each controlled passenger. Hence, the factual characteristics of bribery are not fulfilled.
No that's fine, a ticket for a flight departing from Munich airport likewise doesn't legally entitle you to access a security checkpoint at Frankfurt airport.
"In the United States, we don’t have priority immigration at airports for premium passengers" no, but the government sells immigration priority (Global Entry) and individuals traveling on diplomatic passports often have access to expedited processing.
And we also have Private Suite facilities at commercial airports with no-wait immigration and customs.
Not to mention many FBOs have customs and immigration services on-site for private jet arrivals.
I believe HON members are also escorted to the front of the immigration queue at some US stations.
Ben: Shouldn't you have posted this 7 days ago:-)
Germany is such an awful, overrated country. I will never understand why Lucky seems to worship everything German.
Lucky’s parents are German immigrants. I find worship of anything German to be far more tolerable than worship of anything French.
So describing something that happened in Germany means the author "worships everything German"?
How ridiculous.
I believe Ben reports frequently on German aviation developments, because he speaks fluent German and therefore can read German media.
Not sure why you think there is "worshipping" going on - that is a bizarre claim.
I have heard many words used to describe Germany, positive and negative, so far "overrated" was not among them...
Crazy, Germany is one of my favorite countries to visit.
Some of us are more equal than others!
I never thought about this. I was only thankful for bypassing the hour long lines.
FRA is a truly dreadful airport from a passenger experience. Understaffed for LH J and Y checkin, dimly lit, many low ceilings, and elbow to elbow crowding.
The LH First Class terminal is the only pleasant way to use FRA. However, expense is a factor.
I try to avoid FRA.
Stupidity at its best! And what about people with Diplomatic Passports, and so on...