A Delaware jury ruled that Booking Holdings (NASDAQ:BKNG) violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for “inducing” a third party to access Ryanair’s (NASDAQ:RYAAY) website for the purpose of finding and reselling airline tickets, causing economic harm to the airline.
The Delaware District Court also dismissed Booking’s (BKNG) counterclaims alleging defamation, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices by the Irish airline.
By “screen-scraping,” third parties can extract information from a website’s user interface and repost the information on another website. In the case of Ryanair (RYAAY), the carrier accused Booking (BKNG) of the unauthorized sale of tickets on its flights and ancillary services. Booking (BKNG) allegedly resold these tickets and services for a higher price, masking these practices by using fake emails and fake customer payment cards. This made it impossible for the carrier to notify travelers of delayed or canceled flights.
“It is unacceptable that global giants, like Booking.com, have been engaged in these illegal and deceptive practices for many years with the intent to defraud both Ryanair and consumers,” CEO Michael O’Leary said, adding, “we expect that this ruling will end the internet piracy and overcharging perpetrated on both airlines and other travel companies and consumers by the unlawful activity of [online travel agent] pirates.,”
Ryanair’s (RYAAY) aggressive campaign against OTA pirates has drawn criticism from both passengers and Ireland’s Consumer Association after the airline said it would not recognize bookings made through intermediary websites. The action could leave passengers stranded with steep out-of-pocket costs.
“We are free to cancel a booking,” O’Leary said, adding that the company intends to “cause as much chaos for screen scrapers as possible.”
If a passenger is denied access to the flight, Ryanair (RYAAY) will refund the cost of the ticket to the booking site, leaving the intermediary responsible for refunding their customers.
The Consumer Association of Ireland condemned Ryanair’s (RYAAY) tactics, saying that it victimizes the traveler who should be allowed to find the best fare across multiple websites.
“Ryanair should have nothing to fear from these websites, if they are really the cheapest option, Ryanair will sell more seats,” the agency said.
