Ryanair’s Online Travel Agent (OTA) April Pirate survey has indicated that third-party website eDreams is overcharging customers by as much as 216%, making it ""April’s most rip-off OTA Pirate"", Ryanair claimed. Other online travel agents such as Opodo, Gotogate and Mytrip are also continuing to ‘scan unsuspecting consumers with hidden overcharges and invented service fees,’ notes the low-cost Irish carrier.
“April’s OTA Pirate survey shows eDreams is overcharging Italian customers by over 300% (€25.54 for a reserved seat that cost just €8 on Ryanair.com),” highlighted Ryanair’s Dara Brady, who also called on the Italian consumer agency AGCM “to take action to protect consumers from this internet piracy and overcharging”. Ryanair adds that the AGCM’s inaction is particularly “indefensible” given that the Milan Court of Appeal recently dismissed claims by OTA Pirates that Ryanair was abusing a dominant position in the Italian market.
""Ryanair's disparaging reaction to the AGCM's decision to open proceedings for interim measures, targeting competitors with defamatory and false remarks, once again highlight the very reasons antitrust authorities initiated investigations into them in the first place,"" said an eDreams spokesperson.
The spokesperson added: ""We applaud the Competition Authority's (AGCM) intervention into Ryanair's conduct towards online travel agencies—a conduct now proven to be detrimental to consumers.""
Ryanair has recently signed agreements with six large OTAs (including loveholidays, Kiwi, TUI, On the Beach, eSky and El Corte Inglés), and is now questioning ‘why have eDreams and Lastminute so far refused to sign these agreements when they clearly benefit and protect Italian consumers’.
Ryanair: eDreams OTA overcharging Italian customers
