Ryanair screen scraping complaint taken to Brussels

Travel software specialist Multicom has taken a complaint against Ryanair’s clampdown on screen-scraping to the European Commission.

The firm claims the budget airline’s stance on screen-scraping is in breach of anti-competition directives.

Bristol-based Multicom is seeking to protect what it believes is its right to offer the carrier’s flights to agents and retailers.

But Ryanair rubbished Multicom’s claims and said it would continue to fight online “ticket tout pirates” who continue to rip-off consumers with inflated air fares and fictitious fuel surcharges when purchasing Ryanair tickets through screen scraper websites.

Multicom recently forecast that Ryanair’s legal action in the UK, aimed at preventing scraping of its website by third parties, was likely to fail following a series of successful defences against similar action brought by Ryanair across Europe.

The company, which supplies online booking software to more than half of UK travel agents, has now taken the issue to Brussels in a bid to finally resolve the dispute.

The company’s co-correspondent in the EC complaint is Bravofly, a leading independent online provider of travel agency services in Europe.

Ryanair described Multicom’s claims that the carrier is expected to lose legal actions against agents in the UK as rubbish. The airline also disputed the company’s claim that the EU ‘has accepted a complaint against Ryanair’ as irrelevant since all such complaints must be ‘accepted’ under EU procedures, regardless of how spurious they are.

"Contrary to Multicom’s claims Ryanair has won injunctions against illegal screen scraping agents in Germany and Italy and more recently forced TUI International to enter a cease and desist agreement in the UK to stop its unauthorised scraping of Ryanair’s website," the airline said in a statement.

Ryanair added that it is also reviewing legal proceedings against Thomas Cook after it was revealed that these unauthorised online “pirates” were charging a fictitious £40 “fuel surcharge” and falsely inflating airfares to consumers buying Ryanair tickets.

A spokesman said:“Ryanair continues to block unauthorised ticket tout travel agents from ripping off our passengers.

“Multicom’s claims that screenscrapers are ‘just trying to get the best deal for their customers’ are rubbish when Ryanair has proven that many such unauthorised screenscrapers are ripping off passengers with inflated airfares and fictitious charges.”

Multicom managing director John Howell said: “It would be far more productive for all concerned if we were able to resolve this amicably for all parties.

“Nevertheless, our business, and that of the thousands of hard working agents who are just trying to get the best deal for their customers is being restricted by what we are advised is a breach of the EU legislation regarding anti-competitive trading.

“It is disappointing that Ryanair’s litigious conduct is designed solely to secure and extend its own dominance of the travel market, leaving us with no alternative than to consider every route open to us to bring this matter to an end.”

by Phil Davies