Friday, July 12, 2024
reading time: 2 minutes
Ryanair has released its July survey of online travel agency hackers, which reveals that eDreams is the biggest online travel agency hacker in Europe. According to Ryanair, eDreams continues to exploit Prime members, overcharging them by more than 100%. For example, a 10kg Wizz Air bag priced at €14.90 is being sold by eDreams directly with the airline for €30.92. Similarly, eDreams lists BA seats booked for €39.49, while the same seat costs just €23 on the British Airways website, a 72% price increase.
Ryanair says that despite eDreams not selling Ryanair flights in July, it continues to overcharge for flights and services from other airlines. This is another example of digital piracy by eDreams, whose business model, according to Ryanair, is based on tricking consumers into believing they are getting discounts. In reality, eDreams charges over 100% in hidden surcharges.
Ryanair remains committed to defending consumer protection against such excessive pricing by online travel agencies such as eDreams. The airline once again urges EU governments and consumer protection agencies to take immediate action to stop online travel scams and protect consumers from being defrauded.
Dara Brady, Ryanair CEO, said:
“Our July survey revealed that eDreams is the biggest online scammer in Europe. It continues to defraud its customers and overcharge them by up to 108%. This is just the latest example of online scammers, like eDreams, illegally extracting data from airline websites so they can overcharge uninformed consumers. eDreams must stop extracting data from airline websites and deceiving customers and instead agree to sell flights at transparent prices, just as Ryanair’s growing network of Approved OTA partners have done.”
“It is unacceptable that EU governments and consumer protection agencies continue to turn a blind eye to this rampant digital piracy and overcharging of consumers. Ryanair will continue its campaign against OTA pirates like eDreams by exposing their fraudulent overcharging schemes and will continue to call for OTA pirates to be banned.”
