Ryanair to appeal against latest court ruling in favour of eDreams Odigeo

Ryanair is to lodge an appeal after losing the latest round of a long-running legal spat with European OTA eDreams Odigeo.

 

The online travel agency claimed “another significant legal victory” against the no-frills airline giant after a commercial court in Barcelona found Ryanair guilty of “unlawful competition and denigration” against it.

 

The ruling came as Ryanair announced a more than doubling of first quarter net profits to €820 million.  

 

The OTA has been in dispute with Ryanair after claiming the airline had been carrying out an “aggressive and continued campaign” against it over a number of years.

 

The carrier has long accused eDreams and other OTAs of overcharging consumers for associated services such as bags and reserved seats.

 

But eDreams has sought to defend itself from Ryanair attacks, particularly against its Prime subscription service. 

 

Ryanair launched its own subscription scheme using the Prime name and has repeatedly called out “unauthorised” OTAs such as eDreams for overcharging for flight add-ons.

 

But eDreams Odiego said the Spanish court had found Ryanair guilty of “unlawful competition and denigration”.

 

The court ordered the carrier to publish a statement recognising that eDreams Prime is a “legitimate subscription service that offers consumers savings on flights, hotels, packages and car rentals”.

 

The OTA’s general counsel Guillaume Teissonniere said: “Time and again, courts have resoundingly condemned their denigration tactics. Their motive is transparent: to unfairly crush competition. 

 

“Enough is truly enough. Ryanair must finally abandon these bullying methods, compete fairly on the merits and adhere to the law. It’s long overdue.”

      

However, Ryanair responded by saying it had instructed its Spanish lawyers to immediately appeal the “bizarre” ruling.

 

The airline said in a statement: “Ryanair will not publish any statement, suggesting that eDreams’ Prime offers consumers savings on flights, hotels, packages and car rentals, when Ryanair has already exposed eDreams’ overcharging of its Prime subscribers.

 

“Ryanair will continue to expose eDreams’ overcharging practices which cause serious consumer harm, primarily in Spain, but also in other EU countries. 

 

"Ryanair looks forward to overturning this Barcelona Court ruling on appeal, and will continue to expose eDreams’ overcharging and consumer harm on a monthly basis in its OTA surveys.”