WHEN WILL USELESS MINISTER BUSTINDUY ACT?

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Fri, 20 Feb) welcomed confirmation from the Castilla y León Consumer Authority that it has sanctioned eDreams in relation to consumer law breaches. This latest action follows similar sanctions from other regional Consumer Authorities in Spain, including the Madrid Consumer Authority, which sanctioned eDreams for “several infringements committed through its website in the years 2023, 2024 and 2025”.

These Spanish sanctions come on top of mounting pressure from regulators and courts across Europe over eDreams’ anti‑consumer practices. The Hamburg Regional Court has repeatedly found that eDreams’ price displays are “misleading”.

On 4 Feb, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) imposed a €9m fine on eDreams for unfair commercial practices related to its Prime subscription, which the Authority found were “clearly deceptive”, “unquestionably manipulative” and “misleading”, with consumers “in almost all cases” shown higher Prime prices than non‑subscribers. Internal eDreams documents even promoted the use of “reverse psychology” to increase subscriptions.

Ryanair CMO, Dara Brady said:

“These further sanctions from regional Spanish Consumer Authorities add to the growing body of European findings on eDreams’ anti‑consumer and ‘misleading’ pricing practices. Together with the Hamburg Courts’ repeated findings that eDreams’ price displays are ‘misleading’ and the AGCM’s €9m sanction for ‘manipulative’ Prime practices, the message is clear: consumers deserve transparency.

Meanwhile, Spain’s useless Consumer Minister Bustinduy refuses to do anything to protect thousands of Spanish consumers from these anti‑consumer practices. 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.”