Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Tues, 10 Mar) released its Mar OTA Survey, showing OTAs like eDreams and Tryp continue to overcharge consumers in some cases by more than double Ryanair’s website prices. These OTAs have no distribution agreements with Ryanair because their business models depend on overcharging consumers. eDreams & Tryp are this month’s worst offenders, with eDreams selling a reserved seat which costs just €6.21 on Ryanair.com for €15.43 – more than double Ryanair’s price, and Tryp selling priority boarding for £33.00, when it only costs £20.00 on Ryanair.com.

This latest survey adds to the growing evidence of a tiny number of OTAs who do not have agreements with Ryanair and who overcharge consumers, and gives further weight to the recent Italian €9m fine against eDreams for “clearly deceptive” and “misleading” pricing – further proving that OTAs like eDreams continue to overcharge consumers across Europe.

Ryanair also welcomes the recent Irish High Court order requiring eDreams to cease all direct and indirect access to our Travel Agent Direct (TAD) booking system. The Court‑recorded undertakings oblige eDreams to stop accessing Ryanair’s TAD booking system, stop using third parties to access it on its behalf, and take immediate steps to shut down any activity if it occurs. This follows Ryanair’s action this month to block eDreams’ latest attempt to sell Ryanair flights by conspiring with third parties to unlawfully access Ryanair fares and mis-sell them by breaching it’s TAD system.

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 protects consumers.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“Ryanair’s March survey shows that OTAs like eDreams and Tryp continue to overcharge 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.

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.”