The crux of the matter is that these “consumer protect laws” often release the party with the most leverage from liability i.e. they protect the party with the most leverage from ever being held accountable for doing something really damaging to the other party. And their justification for this, is giving you a pittance as compensation.
How you do it is by simply retaining liability for damages caused, i.e. by not trying to short circuit the justice system.
Do you know what happens when the airline does not follow even the laws that are there on the books in their favour? In that case you are first advised to seek justice from a private arbitration court, i.e. they are again trying to avoid the actual legal system. Seems like a pattern.
Thanks for correcting the record. In that case I think I was mislead and misinformed by the airline. This keeps getting more interesting. So far, they have broken all of the rules: didn’t properly inform me that I will be denied boarding, didn’t call for volunteers, didn’t give me any information about compensation, didn’t provide any written statements and now misleading “information”. Not feeling very protected right now.