War of words breaks out between Ryanair and eDreams over latest court rulings 

A war of words has broken out between long-term adversaries Ryanair and OTA eDreams Odigeo following the latest in a string of court orders involving the pair.

 

Ryanair welcomed three judgments from the Hamburg Regional Court, which the airline said ruled that eDreams’ presentation of prices misled consumers.  

 

Europe’s largest short-haul carrier said the court found that eDreams displayed airline seat and baggage prices without clearly disclosing its own additional fees and that claimed savings through its Prime membership service could not actually be achieved by consumers.

 

However, eDreams interpretation of the three separate rulings was starkly different, saying the German court imposed a penalty on Ryanair for breaching an injunction granted to the OTA in May 2025. 

 

A judge ruled that the airline acted with "fault" by leaving banned terms on its website after being ordered to remove them, according to eDreams.

The rulings follow Ryanair facing a €256 million fine in Italy for abuse of dominance, which it has pledged to appeal against, and other cases of alleged consumer rights breaches.

 

EDreams said the German court ruled that Ryanair’s mechanism for forcing user consent through a ‘search’ button that automatically pre-ticks a box for terms & conditions is prohibited. 

 

The court declared Ryanair’s blanket "non-refundable" policy as invalid, misleading passengers about their rights to reimbursement.

 

The airline’s "administration fee" for processing government tax refunds was also declared void.

 

By contrast, Ryanair said the court stated in its rulings that eDreams’ “price display for seat reservations without disclosing the additional fee… is in any case misleading” and further noted that this constituted “a misleading practice by omission.”  

 

Regarding checked baggage, Ryanair said the court found eDreams had been “misleading about the service fee,” and in relation to its Prime product, the court held “the announcement of the concrete savings… represents a misrepresentation… since the specifically stated savings cannot actually be achieved”. 

 

Ryanair said: “These judgments confirm that eDreams’ approach to pricing is ‘misleading’ - a practice that sets it apart from most other online travel agencies such as Booking.com, lastminute.com, and Kiwi, all of whom have adopted Ryanair’s price transparency standards.”  

 

Ryanair chief marketing officer Dara Brady said: “These Hamburg court decisions reinforce what Ryanair has long advocated - transparent pricing for consumers.   

 

“Despite Ryanair’s repeated objections, eDreams continues to scrape our fares and overcharge consumers. 

 

“EDreams remains the only large OTA that refuses to follow the transparency standards already adopted by Booking.com, Lastminute, Kiwi and others.  

 

“Ryanair has offered to provide eDreams with free, direct access to Ryanair’s inventory - should they wish to compete on a level playing field - if/when they adopt the same transparency standards as their main OTA competitors, and desist from ‘misleading’ or overcharging consumers.”

 

An eDreams ODIGEO spokesperson said: “The difference is simple: when a court requests a minor change to a display layout, we respond and engage constructively. 

 

“In contrast, when a court orders Ryanair to stop abusive anti-consumer practices, they refuse, are fined for ‘bad faith’, and ignore the court mandates. That is the only ’misleading’ behaviour here. 

 

“Now that Ryanair claims to ‘welcome’ German rulings, we expect them to finally comply with the standing orders they are currently defying - disobedience for which they have just been fined.”

 

Guillaume Teissonnière, general counsel at the OTA, said: “Ryanair starts 2026 with yet another court ruling confirming its blatant disregard for the law. 

 

“These German rulings are particularly telling because they condemn Ryanair not just for its unlawful practices, but most notably for its bad-faith refusal to obey court orders. 

 

"The judge’s findings once again show Ryanair’s deliberate pattern of obstruction that we see repeated across Europe.

“It is unacceptable that Ryanair is allowed to continue operating in breach of applicable laws across jurisdictions. 

 

“This systematic non-compliance destroys the level playing field in the industry and harms consumers every single day. 

 

“We call on EU-wide and national authorities to uphold their duty to enforce the rule of law, once and for all. 

 

“Consumers must be protected from this defiant behaviour; no airline should be entitled to bypass the rules that everyone else must follow.”