Ryanair to sue Google and eDreams

Ryanair said eDreams’s adverts regularly appeared at the top of Google’s search rankings, above its own website, because of which travellers would purchase flight tickets from the agent instead of the carrier’s website.

Ryanair is taking Google to court to stop it promoting adverts for a website the airline claims tricks customers into thinking they are booking directly with them.

It is not the first time a public battle has erupted between the two brands, with Ryanair winning a legal ruling in January this year in the German courts to halt the use by eDreams of the ryanair.eDreams.de subdomain, as well as refrain from using the same in Google advertising.

Shares in Ryanair were up 0.1% to EUR14.18 on Tuesday.

“We’re launching legal proceedings in the Irish High Court with Google and eDreams”, Ryanair boss Michal O’Leary said at a press conference in London.

The Irish airline has long complained about eDreams, which it claims masquerades as Ryanair to sell its seats at inflated prices and causes problems with customers’ bookings.

Mr Jacobs added that, as Google had ignored repeated calls for greater transparency in advertising, Ryanair had no choice but to take the action. He also cleared that the company has no problem with the tech giant’s charging advertisers on their paid search function but they expect the company to make sure that the ads are honest and transparent. “But we never engaged in this kind of deception”. He also stated that the Irish legal court proceedings are an attempt on their part to force the search engine company to take action after the Irish airline’s complaints were ignored.

The chief executive said there was a “notional” financial impact on the airline but the legal move was an attempt to stem the complaints and preserve Ryanair’s new, improved reputation.

“The case against Google and eDreams has only just been filed so there is little we can say beyond the fact that we disagree strongly with Ryanair’s position”, a statement from the Spanish e-commerce travel companies said.

Ryanair is accusing Google of allowing eDreams to use subdomains “Ryanair Cheap Flights’and “www.Ryanair.eDream.com” to ‘trick” customers into booking flights on its sites.