MILAN COURT OF APPEAL RULING DISPROVES OTA PIRATE/AGCM FALSE CLAIMS

Ryanair today (Mon 15 Apr) called upon the AGCM to explain why it has allowed itself to be misled by OTA Pirates such as eDreams, and why it has ignored the recent ruling of the Milan Court of Appeal, which dismissed the false claims of OTA Pirates and ruled that Ryanair’s direct sales policy was “reasonable” and led to lower costs and lower fares for consumers. However, just 3 months later, Ryanair believes the AGCM case shows that eDreams misled the AGCM claiming there is an immediate risk to its “very survival” if it cannot offer Ryanair flights for sale in Italy outside of Ryanair’s “Approved OTA” agreement. This glaring contradiction between the Milan Court ruling and the AGCM case shows that AGCM has wrongly ignored the Milan Court ruling which it doesn’t even refer to.

Ryanair has signed “Approved OTA” agreements with multiple OTAs, including Loveholidays, Kiwi, TUI, On the Beach, eSky and El Corte Inglés.  These partnerships are based on transparent pricing for consumers as required by EU law. This contrasts with the OTA Pirate model currently being used by eDreams and others which involve unlawful digital piracy (screenscraping) of Ryanair.com, and inflating airline prices with hidden overcharges or invented “fees” which harm Italian consumers.

Ryanair continues to campaign for consumer protection from OTA Pirates like eDreams, Opodo and Booking.com, and calls again on the AGCM to act against OTA Pirate overcharging.  The failure of the AGCM to protect Italian consumers is indefensible in the wake of the (Jan 2024) Milan Court of Appeal ruling which recognised that Ryanair’s direct sales policy is “economically justified” in “eliminating the costs associated with intermediation in ticket sales” and has led to lower costs and lower fares for Italian consumers.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“The AGCM complaint shows that they allowed themselves to be misled by false claims from OTA Pirates, such as eDreams, particularly when these claims contradict the pro-consumer Jan 2024 Milan Court of Appeal ruling.

The Milan Court of Appeal’s ruling dismissed these false OTA Pirate claims and ruled that Ryanair’s direct online sales policy is “reasonable” and leads to lower costs and lower fares for Italian consumers, whereas unauthorised OTA Pirates like eDreams, continue to scam Italian passengers with hidden mark-ups and inflated prices for Ryanair services as shown above. The Milan Court also ruled that Ryanair “undoubtfully benefits consumers”, which clearly disproves the AGCM case.”

When will the AGCM finally take action to protect Italian consumers from eDreams’ hidden mark-ups and internet piracy and follow the conclusive pro-consumer ruling of the Milan Court of Appeal?”