(Finance) – In the “diatribe” against Booking, The Delaware Court ruled yesterday in favor of Ryanair. “Ryanair Holdings Plc welcomed the unanimous verdicts of the Delaware District Court jury, which last night found unanimously in favor of the claims of Ryanair according to Booking.com had violated the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, causing losses to Ryanair”. Ryanair said in a statement in which it underlined that “The jury also found thatand Booking.com had done so knowingly with “intent to defraud” and that Ryanair had suffered financial loss as a result of B’s illegal screenscraping activityooking.com.
The Delaware court jury – it reads – “also dismissed all of Booking.com’s claims against Ryanair, which included claims for defamation, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices. These Delaware court rulings demonstrate that Booking.com knowingly engaged in illegal screenscraping of the Ryanair.com website, with the intent to defraud Ryanair. Ryanair has repeatedly denounced the deceptive practices of pirate OTAs such as Booking.com, which have used third-party software providers to screenscrape Ryanair’s website and then use this information to charge consumers for Ryanair’s airfares and/or ancillary services, but disguise these anti-consumer practices by making reservations using fake customer emails and fake customer payment cards.”
“Ryanair and our customers warmly welcome yesterday’s unanimous jury decision in the Delaware Circuit Court, which found in favor of Ryanair.demonstrating that travel industry giant Booking.com had unlawfully screenscraped Ryanair’s website, and did so with the intent to defraud both Ryanair and consumers, in violation of the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” said Ryanair’s Group CEO, Michael O’Leary.
“We expect this ruling to put an end to Internet piracy and excessive costs perpetrated by both airlines and other travel companies and consumers from the illegal activity of pirate OTAs like Booking.com.”