A German court has ordered OTA eDreams to display the final price of Ryanair flights at the start of the booking process and to include all surcharges as levied.
The regional court in Hamburg also prohibited eDreams from charging excessive credit card fees and directed that it provide a payment option that does not incur a charge.
The court ruled that eDreams “violated consumer protection law”, was “overcharging customers on payment fees”.
The ruling – the fifth by the Hamburg court against eDreams in three years – came in the latest legal action taken by Ryanair against so-called ‘screenscaper’ websites.
Legal proceedings are continuing in the Irish High Court against both Google and eDreams as the budget airline seeks to prevent the advertising of alleged non-existent Ryanair fares on the eDreams website and Google search adverts.
A spokesman for the airline said: “It’s important to note that Ryanair has no commercial agreement whatsoever with eDreams, who continue to engage in unauthorised screenscraping and mis-selling of Ryanair’s low fares.”
But eDreams ODIGEO hit back with a spokesman saying: “This initial ruling is still subject to legal process and appeal and it is therefore too early for us, or anyone else, to comment.
“We invest in ensuring that our customers in Germany value and trust our service.
“Ryanair are desperately trying to stand in the way of the millions of people using online travel agent sites like ours to get the best deal and the most convenient combination of flights possible.
“They are actually threatened by the fact that close to half of our customers book a combination of flights which cannot be booked on any single airline website.”
The OTA added that Ryanair is expected to face an investigation by the UK Civil Aviation Authority into “unfair charges” and the threat of a class action lawsuit from more than 5,000 consumers on the same issue.