booking Ryanair fights for OTB customers, and/or degrading the customer experience where OTB succeeds in doing so. In acting in this way, OTB believes that Ryanair has been seeking to damage it in the eyes of consumers and starve it of cash at a time when, as Ryanair is well aware, OTB’s operations have been substantially reduced by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Defence Ryanair defends the claim. Due to the jurisdictional challenge referred to above, it has not yet fled a Defence in the English proceedings. However, it is anticipated that it will do so on the basis that its actions are justifed and are not in fact intended to be anti-competitive. Further, it is said, the actions of OTB in booking fights on behalf of its customers are a breach of Ryanair’s standard terms and conditions, which explicitly forbid agents from doing so. This is part of a concerted efort by Ryanair to market fights to potential passengers directly rather than via agents, partly in order to render the customer experience a more straightforward one, and also so that the airline rather than an agent has the opportunity to market additional holiday components and add ons. Ryanair contends that this is a legitimate business concern and that its actions are a proportionate means of achieving it.
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