Ryanair receives, appeals criminal warning

Ryanair Holdings is appealing a criminal warning issued against it from a court in Spain.

The Barcelona Commercial Court has issued the warning against the airline group, parent to Ryanair, Ryanair UK, Malta Air, Buzz and Lauda, for lack of compliance with the court’s order to stop disparaging eDreams ODIGEO and its Prime membership program.

PhocusWire obtained a copy of the legal issuance, in which the court outlined three points for the airline group to follow.

• Ryanair must stop making derogatory statements that are already prohibited by the court’s previous order.
• Ryanair must remove every derogatory statement from its channels including its social media and corporate website.
• Ryanair is warned that if it doesn’t comply, and persists with the disparaging behavior, that would be considered a crime of disobedience.

The warning comes after the court ordered in July that Ryanair had to stop denigrating eDreams - and to stop using terms including “scam,” “pirate” and “deception,” among others, when describing eDreams.

Ryanair Monday instructed its lawyers to ask for clarity from the court on the initial injunction that stopped Ryanair from using certain words to describe eDreams’ Prime program. Ryanair said it hasn’t used that specific language since the injunction was issued. 

Last Thursday, eDreams’ request for an additional enforcement order resulted in the new warning to stop Ryanair from creating “denigratory demonstrations” or “using denigratory statements,” Ryanair said.

“Ryanair believes this ruling is unclear and vague, since the Barcelona Court did not specify what exact language eDreams claims has breached the original injunction,” the company said.

Meanwhile, online travel company eDreams said it  “welcomed the landmark decision.”

The ruling comes on the heels of a Ryanair's publication of its latest online travel agency survey earlier this month, in which the company claimed eDreams was overcharging its Prime members, an assertion it also made in its August OTA analysis.

In a separate case in July, a German court ruled against eDreams in favor of Ryanair, finding that eDreams’ service fee of $4.21 on payments was not in line with the law. It also said the website’s "Flexible Fare" feature was misleading.

In a separate legal battle for Ryanair in the United States, in July, a U.S. court ruled in its favor, finding that Booking.com had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by accessing the airline's website without permission. At the time, Booking.com said it would appeal the ruling.

Ryanair has partnered with a number of OTAs, with a recent pairing with Trip.com, an "approved OTA" partnership announced in August. Its other partners include PaxPort, Etraveli, lastminute.com, Kiwi, Expedia and TUI, among others.