Ryanair responds to the Antitrust: «Online travel agencies are pirates»

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Online travel agencies are “pirates”, the Antitrust Authority is their captain. Michael O’Leary, the volcanic CEO of Ryanair, attacks the Antitrust Authority which a few days ago formalized the start of “precautionary proceedings” against the largest European low-cost company, accusing it of hindering travel agencies with ” restrictions” in ticket sales. O’Leary is in Rome, tomorrow there will be Ryanair’s hearing before the Authority chaired by Roberto Rustichelli. O’leary will not go, there will be the head of Ryanair’s legal service, Juliusz Komarek and a pool of Italian lawyers led by Mario Siragusa.

The silhouettes of pirates

A black flag similar to that of pirates stands out in the press conference room in a hotel on Via Veneto, with the words in English “Stop online travel agencies” and “Protect consumers”. The cardboard cutouts of four pirates, three of which have the eDreams, Opodo and Booking logo instead of a face, the fourth depicts the pirate Jack Sparrow, protagonist of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” saga, with the Italian flag covering his face and a sign on the chest with the writing «Agcm», i.e. Competition and Market Guarantor Authority. In short, Rustichelli assimilated to the pirate played by Johnny Depp.

The ruling of the Court of Appeal of Milan

O’Leary criticizes online travel agencies (he cites them by the English acronym of online travel agencies, Ota) and the Rustichelli Authority. «The Antitrust was fooled by the false claims of the pirate OTAs. These claims were rejected by the ruling of the Milan Court of Appeal of 17 January 2024 which found Ryanair’s sales policy to be in favor of consumers.” The text of the decision, distributed to the press, states that «in partial acceptance of the appeal brought by Ryanair Dac (formerly Ryanair Ltd) against Viaggiare Srl and in partial reform of the sentence. 7808/2013 issued by the Court of Milan (…) on 4.4 – 4.6.2013, ascertains that Ryanair Ltd’s decision to reserve the sale of airline tickets to itself does not constitute an abuse of a dominant position pursuant to art. 102 Tfue”.

Antitrust “incapable of protecting consumers”

«The inability of the AGCM to protect Italian consumers is indefensible», states O’Leary, recalling that the carrier has signed “Approved Ota” agreements with various agencies including Loveholidays, Kiwi, Tui, On the Beach, eSky, El Corte Inglés, to guarantee «transparent prices» as required by European legislation, as opposed to the actions of those OTAs that commit «illegal digital piracy from the Ryanair website and the increase in airline prices with hidden increases or invented taxes that damage customers consumers.”

The decision on eDreams in 2010

«The Antitrust has already expressed itself with a ruling in 2010 against eDreams but today it says that Ryanair must be stopped: it’s true we are big, but because we have grown, we are monopolists on some routes such as those to Reggio Calabria but only because we created them us,” O’Leary continues. «I don’t understand where the Antitrust is going: does it want to allow pirate OTAs to top up our prices or does it want to limit our growth? In the end it will be the consumer who pays.”