Ryanair celebrates victory in fight against screen scraping

2010-01-22

Ryanair is celebrating a victory against screen scraping after the Regional Court of Hamburg ruled that carrying out the action in order to resell the airline's flights is unlawful.

The court also banned German website Vtours from screen scraping Ryanair's website.

In May 2009, a decision was made in Hamburg which ruled that the scraping of Ryanair.com to resell the company's tickets is unlawful. Vtours is now permanently banned from reselling Ryanair flights to consumers.

"Ryanair celebrates today's victory for German consumers as it once again confirms that European courts support Ryanair's fight to protect consumers against overcharging screen scraping ticket touts," said the airline's Stephen McNamara.

"Ryanair will continue its fight against screen scrapers in the interests of passengers until this practice of misleading consumers has been outlawed across Europe," he commented.

Mr McNamara also claimed that the decision marked "a milestone achievement" in the fight against screen scraping.

He pointed out that all price comparison websites can enter into a licence agreement with Ryanair to so they can legally provide consumers with actual price comparisons and ensure that passengers are not subjected to extra charges.

Mr McNamara added that Vtours is welcome to sign up to this licence if it is interested in providing a genuine comparison for consumers in Germany.

Ryanair has been taking the fight to screen scrapers in recent times, claiming that they are carrying out anti-consumer practices. It said that these online resellers have accessed its website in breach of its Terms of Use. They then take Ryanair's flight information and sell its tickets to consumers with extra charges, which are not made clear to the buyer, the company added.

The news comes after the Court of Barcelona dismissed Ryanair's appeal against a decision made by the Mercantile Court, which ruled that eDreams could continue using screen scraping software in order to offer customers direct information on the airline's flights.