Ryanair complained to the consumer authorities of the autonomous communities of Madrid, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands to denounce the sale of flights by online tour operators such as Kiwi, eDreams, Lasminute, Opodo, Love Holidays and On The Beach, and this without any trade agreement between the parties.
In its complaint, the Irish low cost company claims that the alleged business practices of these agencies and others “represent a flagrant violation of European law on consumer protection and price transparency“, demanding a reaction “urgentfrom the Spanish authorities.
Ryanair insists that “it does not authorize the use of its website by intermediaries“, emphasizing that “like any other company, we have the right to be based on the principle of free trade, which implies being able to choose the distribution channel of its products“.
“Our freedom to determine the distribution policy was recently confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal. And the Court of Justice of the European Union has also previously recognized Ryanair’s right to protect its website by contract.“, supports the Irish low cost.
Ryanair specifies that it has authorized Google and Expedia to compare their flights, platforms which “use our license”. “However, to date we have not received any requests from Kiwi.com, eDreams, Lastminute.com, Opodo, Love Holidays and On The Beach“, she specifies. These intermediary tour operators” camouflage and hide their prices and surcharges to deceive consumers “. Thanks to this, they manage to make customers ” sometimes think they are accessing lower fares when in reality they are paying inflated prices to unauthorized intermediaries “.
