A disgruntled Ryanair passenger set up a website dedicated to publishing negative stories about the budget airline has been forced to close the site and relinquish the domain name.
Londoner Robert Tyler website called 'I Hate Ryanair', set up in February 2007, was forced to surrender the web address after Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary complained to Nominet the domain name dispute resolution service.
Nominet closed the site, not because of the content, but because tyler earned money from the site from third party links, which was against the domain name rules.
O'Leary complained that the site took unfair advantage of the brand’s name and claimed it hosted damaging and defamatory articles including false comments about its safety, maintenance and operating standards.
Tyler’s response was that Ryanair had become synonymous with trying to obtain maximum money from customers using unappealing revenue generating techniques.