Ryanair takes Google and eDreams to High Court

Ryanair has taken Google and 'screen-scraper' website eDreams to court in London, alleging the search engine was allowing "non-existent fares" to be advertised that it said misled consumers and resulted in inflated fares.

Buoyed by success in a similar case in the German courts, the Irish budget carrier has launched proceedings in London's High Court as it said Google was allowing eDreams to use the "misleading subdomains" 'Ryanair Cheap Flights' and 'www.Ryanair.eDreams.com', together with "a copycat website with identical Ryanair branding".

Ryanair said by this action Google was allowing eDreams "to deceive consumers into visiting the eDreams website, and booking with eDreams at inflated fares".

However, eDreams has denied the claims and maintained it helped provide consumers with "the best price and choice".

"The case against Google and eDreams has only just been filed so there is little we can say beyond the fact that we disagree strongly with Ryanair’s position," a statement from the Spanish e-commerce travel companies said. "This action is clearly just another attempt from Ryanair to stop online travel agencies from offering consumers the best price and choice when it comes to booking flights."

In October, the Irish airline called on Google directly to enforce greater transparency on its online advertising, but has now taken the battle to the courts after what it felt was a continued lack of action from Google and an increase in consumer complaints.

Although Ryanair has previously said screen-scraper websites were not materially damaging its business, it pointed out that these sites pay Google for an advertising rank above the official Ryanair website on Google searches.

Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, said the branding and design eDreams employs on its subdomain are "a deliberate attempt to dupe consumers into thinking they are directly booking Ryanair's low fares".

"Ryanair has no commercial agreement with eDreams, who continue to advertise false fares and unlawfully mis-sells Ryanair fares with hidden handling fees.

"Our repeated calls for greater Google advert transparency, or for Google to comply with their own code of conduct, have been ignored, and in order to prevent 1,000's more consumers being misled on the Google search engine, we have commenced these High Court proceedings."

The added that after German courts outlawed eDreams using such techniques it was "time the Irish and UK courts did the same to protect consumers".