(Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Friday celebrated victory in a US court against online travel agency Booking.com.
Ryanair welcomed the decision late Thursday by a jury in the Delaware District Court ruling in favour of the discount airline's claims that Booking.com violated the US Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, causing economic harm to Ryanair, by screenscraping the Ryanair.com website.
Booking.com is owned by Norwalk, Connecticut-based Booking Holdings Inc. Its shares closed down 1.5% at USD3,930.56 on Nasdaq on Thursday.
Ryanair shares were down 1.8% in Dublin on Friday at EUR16.39. Flights of Ryanair and other airlines were grounded on Friday due to a global IT outage.
Ryanair doesn't sell its flight via online travel agents such as Booking.com. Flights must be booked directly on the ryanair.com website.
"Ryanair has long complained about the deceptive practices of OTA pirates like Booking.com, who used intermediate software providers to scrape Ryanair's website, and then use this information to overcharge consumers for Ryanair air fares and/or ancillary services but mask these anti-consumer practices by making bookings using fake customer emails and fake customer payment cards," Ryanair charged.
The court also rejected Booking.com's counterclaim that it had been defamed by Ryanair for calling it an "OTA pirate".
Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary said Booking.com and others get between ryanair.com and customers "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)".
Ryanair didn't say what, if any, penalties will be imposed by the Delaware court. Booking Holdings had issued no statement on the case by early Friday in New York.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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