Skyscanner and Ryanair: the “cease and desist” situation clarified

Ryanair has published on their website a letter written to the European Commission regarding their recent announcement about “screenscraper” and “ticket-tout websites”.

Skyscanner, along with dozens of other travel sites are listed in the appendix as websites who have been issued with “legally binding cease and desist declarations”.

To clarify the situation: this refers to a cease and desist order that was issued to Skyscanner several months ago. Ryanair has since informed Skyscanner that its flight details could be displayed on the site.

This decision is based on the fact that Skyscanner is different to the vast majority of other sites listed, in that Skyscanner cut out the middleman, offering users a direct link to the airline’s official website to book their flights.

Ryanair spokesman, Stephen McNamara, also publicly stated that Skyscanner is okay to use, and said Ryanair does not have a problem with the site.

The letter from Ryanair to the European Commission highlights the issues that Ryanair has with “ticket-tout” websites, specifically citing examples of websites that overcharge customers up to 370% for Ryanair flights.
 
The letter stated that Ryanair wishes to “put an end to the illegal practices of these unauthorised screescraper/ticket-tout websites who are inserting themselves into the transaction between the consumer and the airline, without the permission of the airline, and who are routinely overcharging these consumers by up to three times the face value of the Ryanair ticket.”

Skyscanner again would like to remind users that we are not a travel agent, do not act as middlemen and do not charge our users commission for any of the flights that we feature on our site, therefore all Ryanair flights found through Skyscanner will not be affected by Ryanair’s comparison site cancellations and Skyscanner have been given the all clear by Ryanair to continue to show their flight information.

See also: Ryanair Comparison Site Cancellations: No effect on Skyscanner users and Skyscanner Myths Debunked: the truth behind Europe’s favourite flight search engine.