Slightly different but similarly annoying situation happened to me. Was flying back from Birmingham to Berlin, via Dusseldorf (with Eurowings, booked via Luftha

Slightly different but similarly annoying situation happened to me. Was flying back from Birmingham to Berlin, via Dusseldorf (with Eurowings, booked via Lufthansa). There was bad weather at Dusseldorf so the outgoing flight was delayed by an hour or so. Knowing that any passenger arriving at Dusseldorf would arrive at ~8:30pm, and thus miss their connecting flights for the day - they still insisted on people flying there. We arrived, and were stranded - obviously. Their agents closed the booth and tried to leave, but after a bunch of discussion they then wanted to put people on buses or trains to various parts of Germany overnight. A few of us demanded accommodation and ended up staying in the nearby hotel. After like 10 emails back and forth over the next week with the airline they ended up refusing to pay compensation, so I raised a claim with the consumer arbitration board in the country I live (soep-online.de). Two days later I get an email from the airline saying they'll pay out. It seems so utterly scummy that they try lie and deceive consumers out of their rights - how are there not strict punishments in situations where airlines mislead and screw over consumers?