“Somewhere there must be a hand that guides” certain attacks against Ryanair: “maybe I’m too aggressive, I don’t treat bureaucrats like President Enac Di Palma as they would like, but I have good relations with this government, they have never been better. I have met Salvini, the president of Calabria Occhiuto recently came to Dublin after we opened the Reggio Calabria base. And then the Antitrust opens a ‘silly’ proceeding like the one against us” for the risk of abuse of a dominant position. “a ruling from the Court of Appeal of Milan in January 2024 explains that we have no dominant position. They should attack the ‘pirate’ OTAs, not us”. Ryanair group CEO Michael O’Leary stated this – speaking to Adnkronos in Italy on the eve of an Antitrust hearing on the alleged limitations on competition operated by the airline regarding the sale of tickets.
“eDreams says their business will collapse without access to Ryanair tickets, but has ‘Premium services’ with which in the end the consumer actually pays a higher price: there appears to be a small discount on our fares but adding alleged You pay more for ‘privileges'” observes the Irish manager. “The customer doesn’t know that he is paying more for useless services, he thinks they are Ryanair prices” he explains.
“The Antitrust has already expressed itself with a ruling in 2010 against eDreams but today it says that Ryanair must be stopped: it’s true, we are big, but because we have grown, we are monopolists on some routes such as those on Reggio Calabria but only because we created them. I don’t understand where the Antitrust is going: do you want to allow ‘pirate’ OTAs (online travel agencies) to top up our prices or do you want to limit our growth? In the end it will be the consumer who pays”, continues the CEO.
“We have certainly made mistakes in recent years – he admits – but we have been fighting the ‘pirates'” of online bookings like eDreams for at least a decade: The Internet is a wild west with little consumer protection. At eDreams they say that we try to block them from selling our tickets. It’s not true.” “We’re just trying to prevent them from applying mark-ups on our tickets and our ancillary services: then if the customer wants to pay a premium for the eDreams service, go ahead. But – continues O’Leary – you must not think that you are giving the money to Ryanair”.
O’Leary recalls how in the travel and hospitality sector “there are two business models: Ryanair tries to avoid to the airline sector what Booking has done to the hotel sector, imposing their service and increasing prices by 20%. We at the origin we were dealing with travel agencies who charged 10%. But we managed to establish the direct booking model by eliminating the costs associated with ticket distribution.” “I am convinced that we are right: more and more OTAs (online travel agencies) have entered into agreements with us” recalls the Irish manager.
The Antitrust proceedings against Ryanair
The Antitrust has initiated a ”precautionary proceeding” against Ryanair ”aimed at verifying the actual existence of the requirements necessary for the adoption of precautionary measures aimed at restoring and maintaining competitive conditions in the market”. The measure is contained in the bulletin of the Competition and Market Authority, which specifies that the verification is aimed at ”ascertaining a possible abuse of a dominant position” consisting in ”precluding purchases by travel agencies ”of tickets via the airline’s website, and ”in the offer of worsening conditions via gds”.
In this way, according to the Antitrust, the agencies themselves are prevented and/or hindered in the sale of tickets, ”in order to encourage direct sales of airline tickets on their own site and thus jeopardizing the development of effective competition in the travel markets. sale of tourist services, to the detriment of travel agencies and with negative effects on the well-being of consumers who use these operators”. The Agcm explains that Ryanair will have 8 days to present written statements and documents; he will also have 5 days to request a hearing before the panel. (Of Massimo Germinario)
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