The High Court has rejected an attempt by eDreams to stop Ryanair’s Irish proceedings over alleged screen-scraping and the sale of Ryanair flights through online travel platforms.
Ryanair commenced the case in April 2024 against eDreams Odigeo S.A. and Vacaciones eDreams S.L. It alleges that the companies unlawfully access flight information, breach website terms, misuse intellectual property, interfere with its business and engage in misleading pricing and consumer practices. The allegations remain to be tried.
eDreams asked the High Court to dismiss the case on the basis of res judicata — the rule preventing parties from re-litigating matters already finally decided — and the related rule in Henderson v Henderson. It relied on earlier litigation involving Ryanair and related travel companies in France and Spain, where Ryanair had unsuccessfully challenged screen-scraping and online sale practices.
Mr Justice Oisín Quinn held that eDreams had not established the requirements needed to bar the new case.
A central factor was the change in technology and commercial arrangements since the earlier proceedings began in 2008. Ryanair says its website is now protected by anti-bot systems, requires acceptance of updated terms of use and uses mandatory myRyanair accounts. The evidence also showed changes in how eDreams completes bookings and the introduction of its Prime subscription service in 2017.
The court stressed that it was not deciding whether Ryanair’s factual claims about those changes will ultimately be proved. For this preliminary application, however, the unchallenged evidence was sufficient to show that the current dispute arises in a materially different factual and legal setting.
The court also found problems with eDreams’ argument that the parties were effectively the same. Group ownership alone was not enough to establish the required legal identity or privity between companies involved in the French and Irish cases.
The application was refused. The substantive Ryanair case can therefore proceed, with costs and further orders left for later determination.