U.S. Court rules against Booking.com in Ryanair screen-scraping lawsuit

A United States court has ruled that Booking.com violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in a case brought against the online travel agency by Ryanair, but the online travel agency said it will appeal the ruling.

The Ireland-based low-cost carrier claimed Booking.com accessed the airline's website without permission, causing loss for the carrier. The jury in the Delaware District Court also ruled Booking.com had done the screen scraping knowingly with “intent to defraud,” and it also dismissed Booking.com’s counterclaim that Ryanair had defamed the OTA and that the airline was guilty of unfair competition.

In a statement sent to PhocusWire via email, Booking.com said, “We are disappointed with the decision, with which we disagree. We maintain that allowing customers to access and compare fares across the travel industry promotes consumer choice and plan to appeal.”

In recent months Ryanair has given authorization to a number of OTAs to resell its tickets, including a deal with Expedia Group announced just yesterday. Earlier this month Ryanair announced similar deals with Etraveli Group and Lastminute.com.

But it has also labeled some OTAs, such as Booking.com and eDreams, as “pirates.”

“We expect that this ruling will end the internet piracy and overcharging perpetrated on both airlines and other travel companies and consumers by the unlawful activity of OTA pirates like Booking.com,” said Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary.

“Ryanair has fought to protect consumers and ensure that they have direct access to Ryanair’s low fares, and our low-price ancillary services without OTAs, like Booking.com and others, inserting themselves into this relationship in order to overcharge unsuspecting consumers who believe they are booking directly with Ryanair, but in fact are being duped into booking (at inflated prices) via these OTA pirates like Booking.com.”