http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/2ebe07c09f6b76d4 https://verfassungsblog.de/sentient-companions-classified-as-baggage/ Sentient Companions Classified As Baggage - How Iberia Turned Dogs into Luggage Lercier, Marine eng 2025-11-03 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 1999 Montreal Convention Article 13 TFEU CJEU EU EU Iberia (C-218/24) Sentient Companions Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties animal rights EU Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 In Iberia (C-218/24), the Court of Justice held on 16 October 2025 that a passenger’s companion animal lost during international air carriage falls within “baggage” under Article 17(2) of the 1999 Montreal Convention. Accordingly, the liability cap under Article 22(2) applies. The ruling sidesteps both the ordinary-meaning consequence that “baggage” denotes objects and the EU legal context recognising animals as sentient beings. Finally, turning dogs into luggage neglects the social reality where the loss of companion animals foreseeably causes moral harm to their human guardians.