Ryanair claims victory as German court rules screen scrapers must disclose charges

Ryanair’s ongoing campaign to prevent screen scrapers on its site reached a new height today with a Frankfurt court ruling screen scrapers must disclose the fees and charges they impose.

The court rules that Unister, which offers Rynair flights on websites including fluege must display its charges to consumers at the beginning of the booking process.

According to a statement from Ryanair, applauding the ruling, Unister charges Euro 14.93 per passenger.

The statement goes on to say:

“Ryanair has campaigned against these screenscrapers for some time and we hope that this Court victory will bring about transparent pricing among screenscrapers in the interests of consumers.  We call on German consumer agencies, to now ensure that all other screenscrapers comply with this High Court ruling and fully disclose these intermediary fees.”

The low-cost airline has repeatedly instigated proceedings against online travel agencies and most recently it lost a High Court application to prevent Dublin-based Budget Travel from screen scraping its site.

Ryanair also put reCaptcha technology in place on its own site late last year to prevent automated screen scraping systems from accessing its price and availability data.

NB: Boxing image via Shutterstock

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