Competition inspectors visit Ryanair HQ in Dublin amid ‘overcharging’ investigation

Ryanair said it had received a visit from officers of the Italian competition authority and its Irish counterpart on Friday. Photograph: Nicholas.T.Ansell/PA Wire

Officials from competition authorities from Ireland and Italy have carried out an inspection at Ryanair headquarters in Dublin as part of an ongoing investigation.

The airline said that at 12.30am on Friday it had received a visit from officers of the Italian competition authority AGCM and its Irish counterpart the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

The airline said the move was “part of an investigation into claims made by Italian online travel agencies (OTAs) about Ryanair’s long-running campaign to protect consumers from digital piracy and online travel agency overcharging”.

Ryanair said it and its team were happy to fully co-operate with this investigation “into its long-running and increasingly successful campaign” on these issues.

“In recent weeks a number of these OTAs have signed ‘approved’ OTA distribution agreements with Ryanair under which they agreed to stop screen scraping the Ryanair.com website and to stop overcharging consumers with inflated airfares, inflated ancillary fees and invented fees for non-existent services.

“The Milan Court of Appeal in February 2024 dismissed false claims by Italian OTAs that Ryanair was in breach of Italian competition law,” Ryanair said in a statement on Friday.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has been approached for comment.

In September 2023 the Italian competition authority said it had opened an investigation into Ryanair “for possible abuse of a dominant (market) position”.

More to follow…

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