Last August, in the highest holiday season, the low cost airline, Ryanair, brought suit Atràpalo and other web sites, in order to stop the sale of its flight tickets through online agencies.
Atràpalo’s web site enables, thanks to its search engine, access to offers from 70 airlines, which gives the possibility to compare prices and to combine options. Manuel Roca, executive director of Atràpalo explains his position in a press release, to media and to consumers:
“Our objective is to provide, the most offers as well as technology required to reach it in order to be able to compare prices. Our use is totally transparent and indisputably in favor of our consumers; we believe Ryanair is looking for establishing a distrust atmosphere towards online agencies to try selling its flight tickets through its own web page, avoiding price comparability.
Ryanair had threatened to not accept passengers who bought their ticket through an agency online, which created a big mess between users.
Two things follow from those actions: On one side, Ryanair’s dishonesty and wrong concurrence practices which created stress in clients’ mind, with the only objective to be harmful to our image and to our company, without doubting, that our consumers are also their clients. Moreover, instead of looking for new ideas to attack buyers, they preferred conflict and scandal.
Though, Atràpalo gave to its consumers, a message to reassure them: “It would be grave that the company cancels tickets already issued. The European Commission demonstrated this hypothesis is deplorable.”
Even if in reality the Irish company had never done it, this caused interventions of organizations such as the European Commission, which obligated Ryanair to respect reservations already done by internet users, giving notice of the illegality of the hypothetic threat execution.
The judge rejects Ryanair’s request against Atràpalo
On the 23th of January 2009, the court of Barcelona has rejected Ryanair’s request again Atràpalo about selling its flight tickets through our web site.
The court had recognized the right for Atràpalo to be an intermediary in ticket sale, and no prejudice is made to the airline.
The court had recognized Atràpalo as a travel agency legally accredited, and, from this fact, has the capacity to develop this activity.
The judgment emphasizes also that Atràpalo “does not need Ryanair’s approval to carry out its activity” and it is able to keep in conducting its clients to Ryanair’s home page to end their order (such as booking for suitcases, or insurance…), in total legality.
The judge recognized also that internet is a huge network which put in touch a lot of people, allowing communication and information exchanges and with the conclusion that, if the airline resorts to this channel to publicize its flights and its prices, there can be any limit, for users, to know these services.
For Ignacio Giral, travel executive director, “the biggest beneficiary from the judgment, is the consumer, whom the right to access to information is not limited, with the aim to compare and to chose companies and prices matching the most their needs”.
Atràpalo will be able to get on with selling Ryanair’s and other companies’ tickets in total legality .
