Ryanair News

News Release

13.06.12

German Court Rules That Screenscrapers Must Disclose All Intermediary Fees & Charges To Consumers

Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low cost airline, today (13 June) welcomed a Frankfurt Court ruling which obliges screenscrapers who sell Ryanair flights to fully disclose their intermediary fees and charges, which must now be displayed at the start of the booking process to all consumers.

The Frankfurt Courts ruled that Unister, which sells Ryanair flights (on websites such as www.fluege.de and www.ab-in-den-urlaub.de) without Ryanair’s permission, must now disclose its €14.93 handling fee (which it imposes per person on all Ryanair fares) to all its customers.

Ryanair encourages all passengers to only book directly on www.ryanair.com. This ruling will now ensure that consumers who book through screenscrapers will be made aware of Unister’s €14.93 per passenger fee. Ryanair called on German consumer agencies to apply this ruling against all other screenscrapers who often hide these intermediary fees.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:

“We welcome this Frankfurt Court ruling which confirms that screenscraping websites can no longer hide and must in future disclose their intermediary fees.

Ryanair has campaigned against these screenscrapers for some time and we hope that this Court victory will bring about transparent pricing among screenscrapers in the interests of consumers. We call on German consumer agencies, in particular the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VZBV), to now ensure that all other screenscrapers comply with this High Court ruling and fully disclose these intermediary fees.”