Sep 15, 2023

Photo: Aidan Crawley John Mulligan Today at 03:30 Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said he has “no problem” being deposed by lawyers for Booking.com in a major lawsuit launched by the airline against the online travel agent giant in the US for alleged screen-scraping of its fares. In recent weeks, lawyers for Ryanair have resisted efforts by Booking Holdings to force Mr O’Leary to answer questions by way of a deposition. But following Ryanair’s annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday, Mr O’Leary insisted he would be willing to make himself available. “I’ve no problem. I think we’ve agreed that I am to be deposed, but we’re just asking that the chief executive of Booking.com will be deposed as well,” he said. Ryanair has sued Booking.com and its subsidiaries including Kayak, Agoda and Priceline in the United States for alleged screen-scraping of its fares. Screen-scraping involves a third party accessing an airline’s website and often offering that airline’s fares to its own customers via its own website. Mr O’Leary said whether the case against Booking Holdings and its subsidiaries goes all the way to trial “depends on Booking.com”. “If they agree to stop mis-selling our seats, if they agree to give us the actual factual passenger details and the payment details, we’d be content to let them sell our fares, but not on the basis that they inflate our fares and charge our passengers inflated fees for services that are available on Ryanair.com at the lowest prices,” he said. Read more “We have a great case. What Booking.com and the other OTAs (online travel agents) does is unconscionable. If they agree to give us the actual factual passenger details and the payment details, we’d be content to let them sell our fares “They mislead customers. They’re internet pirates for a start. They scrape our websites and our availability without our permission. “They knowingly mis-sell to consumers. They overcharge them for airfares, they overcharge them for bags, they overcharge them for allocating seats and they basically are, I think, a bunch of scam artists.” According to Booking.com, Ryanair was refused permission this week by the judge hearing the case in Delaware from deposing the chief executive of Booking Holdings, Glenn Fogel, as well as the CEOs of its subsidiaries, Kayak.com and Agoda. The airline has insisted it has evidence executives at Booking Holdings “at the highest level” have discussed that certain airlines, including Ryanair “do not want online travel agents selling their flights and discussed the potential risks of continuing to sell those airlines’ flights”. In various cases against so-called screen-scrapers, Ryanair has alleged that fares sold by OTAs to customers are often priced far in excess of what they are available for directly from Ryanair’s own website. It says tickets sold this way also makes it difficult for the carrier to contact passengers booked on its flights in this manner when there are flight delays or cancellations, for instance. At Ryanair’s annual general meeting, shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of a previously announced deal by the airline to buy up to 300 aircraft from Boeing. That will help the airline grow its fleet to about 800 aircraft by 2034. Mr O’Leary also said that he is hopeful the airline could start paying dividends before 2025. He also insisted that passenger charges at Dublin Airport should not increase. The DAA is seeking a judicial review of the current regulated charge, which is set at a maximum nominal rate of €8.50 per passenger this year. DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs said he wants the figure raised to €10 or €11.