Ryanair’s case against online travel agent On the Beach (OtB) of “screen scraping” its website and using the airline’s “literary works” without permission, in a 13-year legal battle has been re-entered with new submissions.
Under a heading related to ‘Copyright and Database Rights’, Ryanair has made a new argument in the 13-year-old case in relation to the compromise of its “copyright and database rights and an abuse of its literary works”,
OtB denies the allegations and has accused Ryanair of anti-competitive behaviour.
Ryanair claimed in the 2010 action that OtB had breached its terms and conditions by accessing its website and passing off its own website as Ryanair’s.
The case gained momentum after a decision by the London High Court in March 2022 to refuse Ryanair a stay on anti-competition proceedings brought by OtB. Ryanair had claimed a stay was needed until the Irish screen-scraping case was dealt with.
Following the English decision, an issue in the Irish proceedings came before Mr Justice David Nolan over whether an appendix from the English proceedings – outlining what OtB said was Ryanair’s anti-competitive behaviour – could be included in the OtB defence to the screen-scraping case.
Mr Justice Nolan directed that the appendix should be struck out.
