Ryanair is claiming a legal victory in a landmark case against claims firm Bott and Co.
A Court of Appeal has ruled that Ryanair should be allowed to deal directly with customers who have made compensation claims against the airline initiated by the law firm.
Bott & Co had alleged that Ryanair had damaged its ‘business model, goodwill and revenues’ by settling pre-action claims directly with customers.
The claims company said this meant it then had trouble recovering its fees from clients who had enlisted its help.
It wanted the High Court to indemnify any unrecovered fees and to rule that Ryanair’s terms and conditions, which requires passengers to first submit claims directly to the airline, were unenforceable.
But a Court of Appeal has stated that Ryanair’s claims procedure allows passengers to claim compensation with a minimum of effort.
It endorsed the London High Court’s finding last year that Ryanair has established a ‘straightforward and easy to use process for its passengers to make their flight delay compensation claims, either online or by correspondence, without the assistance of a third party’.
Last year, Ryanair established a dedicated claims team to process all valid claims within 10 working days.
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said the ruling will help prevent ‘claims chaser’ firms like Bott & Co, Fairplane, Hayward Baker, Sky Legal and Flightright ‘deliberately and needlessly dragging consumers through the courts so they can grab more than 40% of customers’ compensation, for providing no useful service whatsoever’.
David Bott, senior partner at Bott and Co, said the ruling was a victory for passengers.
"We argued that the passenger should have total freedom of choice as to how they could lodge their claim and who could help them. We welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision that passengers are free to use third parties, so long as the claim is made in their name," he said.
