NEWS FLASH
The Brussels Enterprise Court has ruled that several booking practices used by Ryanair are unlawful and has ordered the airline to change them or face a fine of 5.000 euros per day. In May last year, consumer organisation Testachats, supported by Euroconsumers, filed a lawsuit against Ryanair, claiming its booking practices violated consumer rights. The complaints included charges for a ten-kilogram carry-on bag, lack of transparency about costs for services like priority boarding and additional luggage, as well as misleading marketing messages. In a judgment delivered this month, the court upheld these concerns. Unlawful practices include bundled pricing formulas, claims like "only five seats left at this price", false discount advertisements with incorrect reference prices, and the failure to display separate baggage charges for round-trip flights. "This ruling is a clear victory for consumers. It confirms that airlines cannot rely on misleading price tactics, fake discounts or hidden costs to drive sales. Transparency is a legal obligation and a cornerstone of a fair and competitive market”, Marco Scialdone, Head of Litigation at Euroconsumers, said. Ryanair has been given three months from the notification of the judgment to implement the required changes, after which it will face the daily fine. However, the court deemed legal the airline's charges for hand luggage and fees for seating passengers next to minor children, another issue raised by Testachats.

I always hate it when I see "2 more seats left at this price". Now confirmed as a scam.
ReplyDeleteIt is FOMO.
DeleteWell, that will stop them. 😁
ReplyDeleteRyanair always plays at the edge of the knife. Sometimes it wins, sometimes loose. The score is obviously on the win side.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat.
DeleteOr they’ll just splash 5K daily and continue?
ReplyDelete(they can afford it methinks)
Have they addressed the following situation?
ReplyDeleteSay there is 1 ticket left at certain price. If you look up to buy a single ticket you get that price, howecer if you want to buy 3 tickets it charges you 3 x the higher price and not 1x lower and 2 x higher.
This is normal, as 3 pax would be on the same PNR, and you can't mix different fare classes with multiple passengers on the same PNR.
DeleteAny particular reason why you can't mix different fares for multiple passengers on same PNR (also, what is PNR)
DeletePNR is passenger name record. Airline stores information about your flight, your name, your travel data such as your passport details etc within this file, and this also is where your electronic ticket record would be stored as well as all ancillary services you purchased next to your fare.
DeleteIf you create a booking, and select number of passengers it is always that all of these passengers would be booked in the SAME class. You cannot book two passengers in ONE class and the third one in a different one - if you want this, you need to create two separate PNRs, or split the existing one. If there is a lower price available, one passenger will get that lower price then.
It doesn't sound like an actual obstacle. I can't believe that one attribute (fare class) has to be fixed for all passengers when many other are variable (name, DOB, passport, etc)
DeleteRyanair are full of Criminality by the looks of it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, good that Croatia Airlines and Air Serbia are not full od criminality
DeleteBravo! for years these EU based companies have engaged in illegal pricing tactics.
ReplyDelete