Ryanair has dismissed Booking.com’s countersuit in a US court case as “largely unactionable grumblings.”
The low-cost airline had filed a lawsuit against Booking.com, along with its subsidiaries Kayak.com, Priceline.com, and Agoda.com, in Delaware in 2020. Ryanair alleged that the defendants were preventing the airline from maximizing its revenue from its own website by bypassing the website’s security and engaging in screen-scraping of its fares. This technique allows a third party to access an airline’s website and often offer fares to its own customers via its own website.
In response to the case filed in Delaware by Ryanair, Booking.com has refuted the allegations made against it. Last year, Booking.com requested the court to grant damages due to the airline’s behaviour. The online travel group claimed that “Ryanair’s wrongful conduct – including its defamatory accusations and misrepresentations to Booking.com’s customers – harms what Booking.com has built,”. This led to Booking.com filing counterclaims against the airline.
Ryanair has requested the court to dismiss Booking.com’s counterclaims in response to the case filed in Delaware. The airline argues that “Booking.com’s counterclaims are largely unactionable grumblings that Ryanair has implemented verification procedures for customers who booked Ryanair flights through online travel agents,”. “But Booking.com does not allege that any of Ryanair’s procedures themselves are unlawful,” the airline claims. “Rather, Booking.com complains that Ryanair speaking about its procedures is unlawful. That does not make sense and cannot stand.”
Booking.com alleged that Ryanair has publicly disparaged it and other online travel agents and has sent accusatory and disparaging emails to Booking.com customers who have booked Ryanair flights. However, Ryanair insists that it has not made any false statements about Booking.com or any other online travel agent. The airline urged the court to dismiss Booking.com’s counterclaims for unfair competition and defamation. Ryanair claims that Booking.com cannot prove that any of the statements made by the airline are false, and therefore they are not actionable.
