{"id":250332,"date":"2025-12-25T05:09:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T05:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/250332\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T05:09:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T05:09:22","slug":"ryanair-fined-e256m-in-italy-for-abusive-strategy-preventing-travel-agencies-from-purchasing-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/250332\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair fined \u20ac256m in Italy for \u2018abusive\u2019 strategy preventing travel agencies from purchasing flights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nNo-frills airline plans to appeal the decision, saying the fine was unjust\n<\/p>\n

\"Ryanair<\/p>\n

Ryanair plane. Photo: PA<\/p>\n

Ryanair has been fined \u20ac256m by Italy\u2019s competition watchdog for allegedly using an \u201cabusive strategy\u201d to hinder third-party travel agencies.<\/p>\n

The regulator claimed in its ruling that the low-cost airline deliberately made it difficult for agencies to buy flights on its website between April 2023 and at least April this year.<\/p>\n

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) said: \u201cFollowing a complex investigation, the authority found that Ryanair put in place an elaborate strategy affecting the ability of online and traditional travel agencies to purchase Ryanair flights on ryanair.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, the company\u2019s strategy blocked, hindered or made such purchases more difficult … when combined with flights operated by other carriers and\/or other tourism and insurance services.\u201d<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cThese practices compromised the ability of agencies to purchase Ryanair flights and combine them with flights from other airlines and\/or additional travel services, thereby reducing direct and indirect competition between agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryanair said it would appeal the ruling and the fine, which it said was unjustly levied: \u201cRyanair has campaigned for many years to offer consumers the lowest fares by booking directly on the ryanair.com website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis direct distribution model was ruled to \u2018undoubtedly benefit consumers\u2019 by the Milan court as recently as January 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryanair\u2019s chief executive, Michael O\u2019Leary, branded the ruling \u201clegally unsound\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThis AGCM ruling is an affront to the precedent Milan court ruling, and also an affront to consumer protection and competition law.<\/p>\n

\u201cRyanair has grown rapidly in Italy, and in many other markets across Europe, by always offering the lowest air fares in every single market in which we operate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis legally baseless AGCM ruling, and its absurd \u20ac256m fine, undermines consumer protection and competition law, and it will be overturned on appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy fined Ryanair \u20ac3m in 2019 for its policy of charging passengers for cabin baggage, but that penalty was later overturned by an administrative court.<\/p>\n

Online travel agency eDreams Odigeo welcomed the ruling and called for an industry-wide investigation. Guillaume Teissonniere, its general counsel, said: \u201cThis the latest in a mounting series of binding decisions across Europe that Ryanair has consistently chosen to ignore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis corporate culture of complete disregard for the law must end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No-frills airline plans to appeal the decision, saying the fine was unjust Ryanair plane. Photo: PA Ryanair has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,19,17,371,1843,112802,623],"class_list":{"0":"post-250332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-italy","13":"tag-michael-oleary","14":"tag-press-association-pa","15":"tag-ryanair"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115778484434098177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}