Ryanair Holdings PLC RYANAIR TAKES LEGAL CASE AGAINST EDREAMS & GOOGLE (5840H)
02 December 2015 - 1:19AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMRYA
RNS Number : 5840H
Ryanair Holdings PLC
01 December 2015
RYANAIR LAUNCHES HIGH COURT ACTION ON BEHALF OF CONSUMERS TO
PREVENT EDREAMS & GOOGLE DECEIVING CONSUMERS WITH MISLEADING
ADVERTS AND FALSE PRICES
Ryanair, Europe's favourite airline, today (1 Dec) announced
that it had launched High Court proceedings against both eDreams
and Google to stop them misleading consumers by advertising
non-existent Ryanair fares via the eDreams website and Google
search adverts. These practises are prohibited by consumer
legislation. As a result, Ryanair has also put the Competition and
Consumer Protection Commission on notice of the proceedings.
Screenscraper website eDreams has been allowed by Google to use
the misleading subdomains "Ryanair Cheap Flights" and
"www.Ryanair.eDreams.com", and a copycat website with identical
Ryanair branding, in order to deceive consumers into visiting the
eDreams website, and booking with eDreams at inflated fares.
Ryanair has engaged in several legal cases across Europe against
screenscraper websites such as eDreams to prevent consumers from
being deceived and subjected to false prices and hidden charges.
Consumers are also faced with a range of problems when booking
through eDreams, such as checked in bags not being recorded,
contact details being omitted and additional passengers not being
recognised or added to the booking.
Ryanair has no issues with Google selling advertising space, but
has repeatedly called on Google to enforce transparency on its
online advertising following numerous complaints from Ryanair
customers who were deceived into buying on the eDreams website when
they thought they were booking on Ryanair.com. Following Google's
refusal to stop these false advertising practices (which are in
breach of Google's own code of conduct), Ryanair has been left with
no alternative than to take legal proceedings against both eDreams
and Google in the Irish High Courts.
Ryanair's CMO Kenny Jacobs said:
"This Google/eDreams action is a repeat of a recently successful
German court ruling which has outlawed eDreams deceptive
advertising in Germany. This deception and mis-selling has led to a
surge of consumer complaints and leaves Ryanair with no choice but
to take legal action against both Google and eDreams, who continue
to use Google search adverts to deceive consumers into booking
Ryanair flights on the eDreams website at inflated fares. Both the
subdomain eDreams uses, and the branding and design it employs on
this site, are a deliberate attempt to dupe consumers into thinking
they are directly booking Ryanair's low fares.
Ryanair has no commercial agreement with eDreams, who continue
to advertise false fares and unlawfully mis-sells Ryanair fares
with hidden handling fees. Our repeated calls for greater Google
advert transparency, or for Google to comply with their own code of
conduct, have been ignored, and in order to prevent 1,000's more
consumers being misled on the Google search engine, we have
commenced these High Court proceedings.
We have no problem with Google charging advertisers on its paid
search function, but we expect Google to ensure that this
advertising is honest and transparent (namely that eDreams
advertises as "eDreams" and not as Ryanair), which is what Google's
own code of conduct requires and which will prevent more ordinary
consumers being deceived by this false and unlawful advertising
scam. The German courts have already outlawed this eDreams false
advertising, and its time the Irish and UK courts did the same to
protect consumers."
ENDS
For further information
please contact:
Robin Kiely Joe Carmody
Ryanair Ltd Edelman Ireland
Tel: +353-1-9451949 Tel: +353-1-6789333
press@ryanair.com ryanair@edelman.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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