Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Tues, 10 Feb) released its Feb OTA Survey, showing some OTAs like eDreams, Vola, and Tryp continue to overcharge consumers in some cases more than double Ryanair’s website prices. These OTAs have no distribution agreements with Ryanair because their business models depend on overcharging consumers. eDreams & Vola are this month’s worst offenders, with eDreams selling a reserved seat that costs just €10.00 on Ryanair.com for €20.90 – more than double Ryanair’s price, and Vola selling a 10kg bag for €25.00, which is almost double the €13.49 cost on Ryanair.com.

This latest survey adds to the growing evidence of a small number of OTAs overcharging consumers and mirrors the Italian AGCM’s recent €9m fine against eDreams for “clearly deceptive” and “misleading” pricing – further proving that OTAs like eDreams continue to overcharge consumers across Europe. Ryanair’s recent wins in the Hamburg Court, which ruled that eDreams’ presentation of prices misled consumersis yet another indicator that EU governments need to act quickly to protect consumers.

Ryanair continues to campaign to protect EU consumers from OTA overcharging and calls again on EU Govts (most notably Spain’s useless Consumer Minister Bustinduy) and National Consumer Authorities to take urgent action to protect consumers from these overcharging OTAs. They should insist on mandatory price transparency from all OTAs, in line with the transparent pricing being delivered by all of Ryanair’s “Approved OTA” partners, which protect consumers.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“Ryanair’s February survey shows that some OTAs like eDreams, Vola, and Tryp continue to overcharge unsuspecting consumers, in some cases more than double the prices on Ryanair’s website. Yet still, Spain’s useless Consumer Minister Bustinduy, refuses to do anything to protect thousands of Spanish consumers from such eDreams overcharging.

This latest evidence also reflects the Italian AGCM’s €9m fine against eDreams for “clearly deceptive” and “misleading” pricing – yet another confirmation that certain OTAs’ anti-consumer practices need to be addressed across Europe. Our recent Hamburg Court win proved what we’ve been highlighting for years – eDreams’ business model relies on overcharging consumers – yet still Minister Bustinduy fails to act. We again call on EU Govts and Consumer Protection Authorities to take urgent action to protect consumers across Europe by insisting on OTA price transparency, in line with the transparency standards applied by all of Ryanair’s approved OTA partners.”