Multicom Forecast Legal Ruling Against Ryanair

Travel software specialists Multicom is confident Ryanair will lose its legal action against agents in the UK following the latest legal rulings in the Spanish and German courts against the low cost airline. 

The Bristol-based company, suppliers of online booking software to over half of the UK travel agents, say the successful ruling in favour of Spanish online travel agency, Atrapalo in the Court of Barcelona in January undermines Ryanair’s position for other pending litigation. The Court of Barcelona ruled that Atrapalo was entitled to offer Ryanair airline tickets as part of its normal business activities. The Court reasoned that where an airline offers flights through the Internet, it forfeits its right to control the subsequent use of the flight information by others.

Ryanair were dealt a further blow this month when the Court of Appeal in Frankfurt dismissed their appeal against an earlier injunction granted last September in favour of CheapTickets. The judgement on 5th March means Ryanair is restrained by the injunction from refusing to fly any passengers who have bought tickets via CheapTickets and cannot publicly claim that CheapTickets business is illegal.

Ryanair has repeatedly falsely alleged that in offering a cost-comparison of all available flight offerings and providing booking capabilities to consumers’ agents and other independent online retailers are acting illegally. In November 2007, a court in Paris dismissed proceedings commenced by Ryanair while in Germany, during August and September 2008, the Court of Frankfurt issued two separate decisions, each confirming the right of independent online travel agents to sell Ryanair flights. Consistent rulings are expected shortly in both Ireland and Switzerland.

John Howell, Managing Director of Multicom, said: "To date, Ryanair has both threatened and commenced legal proceedings in numerous jurisdictions – including France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom – against leading independent online travel agencies. 

"However, having now considered the evidence, various European Courts are beginning to deliver their rulings and it is fast becoming evident that Ryanair's arguments are entirely without legal foundation.   

"The rulings have established that the activities of independent online travel agencies are not only legitimate, but play a key role in providing consumers with accurate information and ensuring market transparency, thus facilitating vigorous competition in the markets for both air passenger transport and travel-related services. 

"Ryanair's litigious conduct is designed solely to secure and extend its own dominance of the travel market by preventing access to transparent fare prices, terms and conditions and denying consumers the ability to carry out effective cost-comparison.

"In Multicom's view Ryanair's indiscriminate threat of legal proceedings can only be explained as a strategy designed to cause maximum commercial disruption to all independent online travel agencies. 

"Rulings such as these establish the commercial legitimacy of the online travel agency sector. It is obvious that Ryanair's aim is to eliminate genuine competition, resulting in less choice and higher prices for consumers and ultimately damaging the travel sector as a whole. This is clearly something no European court can countenance," added Howell.