Ryanair provides evidence backing ban on screenscaper bookings

Ryanair has offered what it is calling “documentary evidence” to the European Commission to support its requested banning of airline bookings made through third-party websites.

According to information provided, the third-party sites, or “screenscrapers,” are shown to inflate prices offered by the carrier by up to 300 per cent, to violate its copyrights and to be in breach the carrier’s terms and conditions for the purchase of tickets.

Ryanair is asserting that the information is hidden from consumers and that the ticket price is billed “as if this was the Ryanair ticket price.”

The low-cost carrier has asked the EC to place a ban on the “ticket tout websites.”

In commenting on the evidence provided by the airline, Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary noted: “It is remarkable, but unsurprising, that a number of European Government agencies and the European Commission has sought to blame Ryanair for blocking the illegal activities of these screenscrapers, instead of tackling the real consumer scandal which is the hidden 200 per cent or 300 per cent mark ups being levied and over-charged on innocent consumers by these illegal screenscraper/ticket tout websites.”

A final ruling has not yet been made by the EC.

www.ryanair.com