Ryanair Holdings appeals a criminal caution issued against it by a court in Spain. The Barcelona Commercial Court issued a warning against the airline group that includes Ryanair, Ryanair UK and Malta Air as well as Buzz and Lauda for failing to comply with the court order to stop disparaging eDreams ODIGEO and their Prime membership program.
PhocusWire has obtained a copy the legal issuance. In it, the court outlines three points the airline group must follow.
- Ryanair must cease making derogatory remarks that are already prohibited under the previous court order.
- Ryanair must remove all derogatory statements from its channels, including social media and its corporate website.
- Ryanair is warned to stop its disparaging behavior if they don’t comply.
The warning comes following a court order that Ryanair must stop denigrating the eDreams brand and stop using terms like “scam”, “pirate”, and “deception”, among others, to describe eDreams.
Ryanair instructed its lawyers on Monday to ask the court for clarifications regarding the initial injunction which prevented Ryanair from using specific words to describe eDreams Prime program. Ryanair has said that it hasn’t used the specific language since an injunction was issued.
Ryanair has issued a new warning after eDreams requested an additional enforcement order last Thursday. The new warning is to stop Ryanair from “creating denigratory demonstrations” and “using denigratory remarks”, Ryanair said.
“Ryanair believes that this ruling is unclear and ambiguous, since the Barcelona Court has not specified what exact language eDreams claims to have breached the initial injunction,” said the company.
Meanwhile, online travel company eDreams said it “welcomed the landmark decision.”
The ruling comes after Ryanair published its latest online agency survey earlier in the month, where it claimed eDreams charged its Prime members too much, an assertion that was made also in its August OTA Analysis.
In a separate court case in July, a German judge ruled against eDreams and in favor of Ryanair. The court found that eDreams’ $4.21 service fee on payments was illegal. The court also said that the “Flexible Fares” feature on the website was misleading.
In July, a U.S. Court ruled in favor of Ryanair, ruling that Booking.com violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for accessing the airline website without permission. Booking.com had announced that it would appeal at the time.
Ryanair has partnered up with a number OTAs. The most recent partnership was with Trip.com. This “approved OTA” partner was announced in August. PaxPort, Etraveli lastminute.com Kiwi, Expedia and TUI among others are some of its other partners.
