RYANAIR YESTERDAY won a court order preventing a German travel website from extracting information on fares from the airline's site for use on its own website.
The injunction, secured against VTours GmBH in Hamburg Regional Court, prevents the company "unlawfully accessing Ryanair's website, and presenting Ryanair's flights and timetables for sale to Vtours GmBH customers", the carrier said.
Ryanair said the decision was a vindication of its policy banning so-called "screen scraper" websites where they "attempt to misuse and or mis-sell details of Ryanair's flights and prices".
The airline claims such sites fail to provide passengers with terms and conditions of travel, unfairly charge fees for a "non-existent" service, and "unlawfully mis-sell" accommodation, car hire and travel insurance to Ryanair's passengers at a higher price than is available on the airline's own home page.
Ryanair, which this week went to the Commercial Court to have a Dublin-based travel website closed down, said it expected the German court's decision would be the first of a number across Europe against the sites. It said it would continue to campaign for legislation outlawing the sites, describing them as "nothing more than video or software pirates" and "profiteering middlemen".
