COMPETITION LAW: ONLINE TRAVEL AGENTS AND AIRLINES (2) Compared to booking directly with an airlines such as Ryanair, OTB enables consumers to compare prices across, and choose between, a wide range of airlines and hotels, and combine them at will, including by combining inbound and outbound flights from different airlines. (3) Compared to booking with a traditional travel agent, OTB allows consumers to book the holiday of their choice quickly and efficiently at any time of the day or night, without needing to visit the agent in person, or deal with the agent by phone during office hours or through protracted email communications. (4) Further, unlike many providers, including Ryanair: (a) OTB holds customer monies in a ring-fenced trust account; (b) OTB package holidays are also ATOL-protected (which ensures that OTB Customers would not lose money, or become stranded abroad, were OTB to collapse); (c) OTB manages customers’ holidays on their behalf. For example, if the time of a flight changes, OTB will automatically reschedule the transfer; (d) OTB vets the travel service providers with whom it works for quality, and can sometimes offer prices not available to consumers when they book directly; (e) OTB customers are able to pay for their holidays in instalments. (5) More generally: (a) Price comparison services such as OTB increase transparency, and so increase competition among travel service providers, resulting in lower prices for consumers, as well as increased transparency and, therefore, choice; (b) Increased competition from online travel agencies such as OTB lead to greater benefits to consumers generally. For example, OTB operated a promotion whereby it arranged free Covid-19 tests for its customers. According to OTB, Ryanair does not welcome these enhanced consumer experiences, taking the view that they represent significant and unwanted competition with the airline. As a result, so OTB asserts, Ryanair has engaged in a strategy of disruption to online travel agencies’ business models. It is in this context that OTB invites the court to see Ryanair’s litigation against multiple online travel agencies and their service providers in the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in the EU. In parallel with this litigation, OTB alleges that Ryanair has adopted a multi-faceted course of conduct aimed at preventing competition from online travel agencies, including OTB; a course of conduct that constantly evolves over time and has encompassed the use of the pandemic to further Ryanair’s goal of driving online travel agencies from the market. That course of conduct (described by OTB as ‘the Campaign’) is said to be
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