Ryanair has obtained a permanent injunction from the Irish High Court against Flightbox for violating Ryanair’s website’s Terms of Use in its ongoing battle wit online travel agents (OTAs).
Ryanair says unlawful scraping by OTAs leads to overcharging for air fares and ancillary services, as well as the use of fake customer accounts, payment cards, and emails.
Ryanair said in a written statement that this Court ruling is significant in safeguarding customers from overcharging by OTAs and ensures that Ryanair customers receive the best fares, customer service, and real-time email communications.
it follows a series of inconclusive court battle sin carious courts around Europe, most notable a defeat in a case against Kiwi.com in in Olomouc in the Czech Republic.
Ryanair’s Dara Brady said: “This historic High Court ruling has reinforced Ryanair’s determination to pursue justice for our customers to ensure they get access to the lowest fares, cannot be overcharged by OTAs, and that they have direct access to manage their bookings and to receive up to date flight information.”
“The Ryanair website is the only website authorised to sell Ryanair flights. OTAs have for years relied upon screenscrapers (such as Flightbox), fake customer accounts, single-use payment cards and fake customer email addresses to make bookings on Ryanair’s website in breach of the Terms of Use. This can cause huge inconvenience and expense to customers as often OTAs not only overcharge for fares, bags and seats, but they also block customers from managing their bookings or receiving important flight updates from Ryanair (such as online check-in reminders).
“Ryanair does not have a commercial relationship with any OTA or screenscraper and we strongly object to OTAs mis-selling our flights and overcharging consumers. We encourage our customers to book directly with us through ryanair.com or our mobile app.”
