Global law firm Reed Smith has helped online travel business, Cheaptickets.de, win a long-running legal battle with Ryanair over selling the budget airline’s tickets on the travel portal.
The German Federal Supreme Court backed the legal arguments put forward by Reed Smith and Cheaptickets.de, over-turning a previous decision of the Court of Appeals in Hamburg that the portal illegitimately ‘screen-scrapes’ Ryanair’s website and booking systems for data.
Cheaptickets.de, operated by the Dutch company Travix Nederland B.V. offers flights from almost all airlines, including Ryanair on its travel portal. Ryanair argued that Cheaptickets.de was illegally accessing its database in order to be able to sell the tickets.
While the Court of Appeal had already denied claims for infringement of copyright and database rights, the airline still claimed that Cheaptickets.de’s activities were leading to ‘unfair surreptitious purchases’ of Ryanair’s tickets and was an ‘unfair hindrance’ on its business, under § 4 No.10 of the German Unfair Competition Act (UWG), which was accepted by the Court of Appeal.
However the German Federal Supreme Court dismissed Ryanair’s allegation and found in favour of Cheaptickets.de. which is a major milestone in a legal battle that had begun in 2008.
Dr. Philipp Süss, a partner at the international law firm Reed Smith LLP in Munich said: “This judgement indicates a future direction for the entire online travel sector and should be welcomed.
“The German Federal Supreme Court not only approved the business model of online booking portals in principle but also reached a decision that clearly supports the interests of consumers.”
The Supreme Court passed one issue back to the Hamburg court for clarification – the question of whether the portal misleads consumers or is acting in line with the principles of fair competition.
Notes to editors
Case details: German Federal Supreme Court judgement of April 2014, case no. I ZR 224 / 12
Official representatives of CheapTickets.de
Reed Smith LLP (Munich): Dr. Philipp Süss, Dr. Thomas Fischl
Lawyer at German Federal Supreme Court: Axel Rinkler
About Reed Smith
Reed Smith is a global law firm, with 25 offices and more than 1,900 lawyers in offices across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States.
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