COMPETITION LAW: ONLINE TRAVEL AGENTS AND AIRLINES 2. THE BUSINESS MODEL In illustrating the nature of the relationship between airlines and online travel agents, it is convenient to use as an example a case currently proceeding through the English courts: On the Beach v Ryanair [2022] EWHC 861 (Ch). The parties’ business models are set out in that case as follows: On the Beach (‘OTB’) offers services via the web and apps for mobile devices. These enable consumers to book short-haul package holidays online. Although it has an international segment which offers holidays from websites in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the vast majority (99.7%) of holidays are booked via its UK-facing website and app, and almost all of these depart from the UK. It operates as a ‘one-stop shop’ where customers can select various components of their holiday, such as flights and hotels, from different providers, and buy them in a single transaction. That includes Ryanair flights. For most flights, including Ryanair flights, OTB makes the booking (or attempts to do so) as agent on the customer’s behalf. In providing its services it is directly competing with Ryanair both in providing flight booking services to customers and in offering to arrange ancillary travel services such as hotel accommodation and car hire. Ryanair, so OTB says, does not welcome such competition, but wants to own the customer relationship itself, monopolise the market for booking its flights, and reduce competition and choice for ancillary services. In pursuit of this end, OTB alleges that Ryanair has not only engaged in multiple litigation against online travel agents and their service providers, but adopted a multi-faceted course of conduct aimed at preventing such competition. This is said to include making false and disparaging claims about online travel agents, including OTB; attempting to prevent OTB from completing bookings on behalf of its customers; refusing to allow OTB customers to check in online, or requiring them to undergo a verification process which makes it difficult for OTB to perform its services for them; and withholding refunds from OTB customers. Ryanair, on the other hand, asserts that as a low-fare airline its business model is based on being able to sell its flights directly to customers, thereby maximising its opportunities to sell ancillary products to them. It therefore predominantly advertises, markets and sells its flights to customers via its own website and not through travel agents or other online platforms. Online travel agents such as OTB obtain data regarding Ryanair flights by screen-scraping4 Ryanair’s website 4 Screen-scraping is the practice of using software to interact with a website to extract information from it such as price, flight and timetable information.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==