Ryanair has highlighted “ the most outrageous overcharge of the month” at online travel agency Kiwi.com, which charged €24.40 for an allocated seat, a cost of only €5.50 on Ryanair.com, an overcharge of 344pc. It also highlighted:
- Opodo.com charged customers €60 for a flight cancellation fee when no fee is legitimate for justified cancellations on Ryanair.
- Lastminute.com duped customers by charging €23 for an allocated seat that costs only €5.50 on Ryanair.com.
- eDreams.com imposed a flight change fee of up to €60 in addition to Ryanair’s own change fee.
Ryanair says it is actively surveying and exposing scams conducted by what ti calls OTA pirates who pose as price comparison websites. These pirates deceive customers with fabricated fees for “processing” or “cancellations” or by overcharging for Ryanair’s ancillary services by an alarming 344pc.
Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, expressed frustration with these practices, calling them unlawful acts of digital piracy. “We will continue to call for these OTA pirates to be outlawed and their scams ended. These OTA pirates not only engage in digital piracy, but then use the results to scam and overcharge unsuspecting consumers. Not alone are they unlawfully scraping Ryanair’s website in an act of digital piracy, but these pirates then use this unlawfully gained info to scam unsuspecting consumers with charges for services that are provided by Ryanair free of cost, or they are massively over charging customers for Ryanair’s ancillary services, frequently charging 3 or 4 times the Ryanair price to these unsuspecting consumers. Ryanair continues to campaign against these OTA pirates and continues to call upon Govts and consumer agencies to take action to prevent this internet piracy and blatant anti-consumer mis-selling. We find it extraordinary that the Westminster Govt, its consumer agencies (the CMA & CAA) or the useless consumer magazines such as Which?, continue to ignore this rampant internet piracy and anti-consumer mis-selling.”
