Ryanair confirmed it has filed a protective brief with the Hamburg Court to prevent eDreams from censoring Ryanair’s recent press statements publicising the Court’s finding that eDreams’ prices and discount advertisements are “misleading”.
EDreams’ attempted censorship comes in the wake of mounting pressure from EU Courts and Regulators in relation to consumer law breaches by eDreams. The Hamburg Regional Court has repeatedly ruled that eDreams’ presentation of prices and discount advertisements are “misleading” and fined eDreams for continued non-compliance with the ruling.
The German Court’s findings align with findings from other European authorities, such as the €9m sanction imposed by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) for eDreams’ “clearly deceptive”, “unquestionably manipulative”, and “misleading” practices linked to its Prime subscription scheme. eDreams’ commercial practices have also attracted sanctions from numerous Spanish regional consumer authorities including the Madrid and Castilla y León Consumer Authorities who found “several infringements” of consumer law by eDreams.
eDreams’ efforts to use the German courts to restrict Ryanair’s ability to publicly communicate these Hamburg Court rulings is a blatant attempt to keep consumers in the dark in relation to court findings that eDreams’ practices are “misleading”. Ryanair has submitted a formal brief to defend the accuracy of its statements and its right to inform consumers about findings that eDreams’ practices are “misleading”.
Ryanair CMO, Dara Brady, said: “eDreams’ attempt to censor Ryanair’s publication of Court findings that eDreams’ pricing practices are ‘misleading’ is a blatant attempt to hide the truth from consumers. The Hamburg Court has already ruled against eDreams and fined them over their conduct. Our PR simply explained those rulings. Instead of fixing its business model, eDreams is now trying to censor Ryanair’s communications and shut down criticism. We won’t let that happen.
We have filed a brief with the Hamburg Court to confirm that our statements are accurate and to defend our right to tell customers the truth about eDreams’ conduct. Ryanair will continue to campaign to protect EU consumers from these overcharging OTAs. EU Govts and National Consumer Authorities should insist on mandatory price transparency from all OTAs to protect consumers, in line with the transparent pricing being delivered by all of Ryanair’s “Approved OTA” partners. Ryanair encourages consumers to book directly on Ryanair.com or through one of Ryanair’s “Approved OTA” partners to ensure the lowest fares and Ryanair approved transparency.”
