INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW with a poor purchasing and flying experience, the only reason the customer is currently suffering any deficit is Ryanair’s own attempts to protect its commercial interests. Its long campaign to prevent any entity other than itself from selling its flights does look, superficially at least, like an abuse of its dominant market position, for which its reasons appear weak. In particular, limiting consumer choice and implementing policies which have the direct result of adversely affecting consumers does not appear compatible with Article 102. Interestingly, Steve Endacott, a well known British entrepreneur and consultant in the travel industry, has applauded the action brought by OTB in the courts of England and Wales12, commenting: “Ryanair has always taken an extreme stance, refusing to provide booking APIs and actively trying to blook screen-scrapers. Having failed to achieve this, they have now switched to disrupting OTA customer processes by preventing their customers from using its myRyanair online check-in tools and sending OTA customers emails suggesting the mark-up flight and baggage costs they have paid are above those charged by the airline directly. During Covid-19, Ryanair took its anti-trade stance further, putting OTA bookings at the back of the queue for refunds. Ryanair knew the package regulations and the ability of customers to hit OTAs with credit card recharges would force them to refund, even if they had not been repaid by Ryanair, protecting Ryanair from a direct customer backlash for late repayment and allowing them to hold on to hundreds of millions in refunds that were due. For OTB alone this represented a £48.7 million cashflow hit. Many other travel companies, such as Loveholidays, incurred extensive brand damage because their trust funds simply did not have enough money in them to refund customers if Ryanair did not refund them. Hence, my view is that although OTB is fighting an independent battle against Ryanair, success will lead to an avalanche of damages claims. Customers buying a package holiday primarily buy based on the holiday destination and hotel offered, usually considering the flight as a ‘bus service’ purchased based on a combination of lowest price and best flight times. OTAs offer the widest range of options because, unlike low-cost carriers’ internal holiday companies, they offer all airlines and the ability to mix and match inbound/ outbounds between different airlines. 12 Comment: Will On the Beach suing Ryanair create an avalanche of claims? | Travel Weekly
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