Ryanair likely to seek ticket reselling halt following ruling

Ryanair is likely to ask the courts to order a number of websites to stop reselling its tickets following a ruling yesterday.

The airline is challenging the rights of Billigfluege, Ticketpoint and On the Beach to sell Ryanair flights without transferring customers to the airline’s website.

The Supreme Court yesterday overturned challenges brought by the three companies to previous rulings that the cases should be heard in the Republic, effectively giving the go- ahead for Ryanair to bring its actions against them in this jurisdiction.

As a result, the airline is likely to go seek injunctions in the Irish courts against all three to prevent what it argues is their unlawful use of its website.

Ryanair originally issued proceedings to ask the court to prevent Billigfluege and Ticketpoint from using its website in 2009 and began a similar action against On the Beach the following year.

Billigfluege and Ticketpoint challenged the Irish courts' jurisdiction to hear the case. In early 2010 the High Court ruled in favour of Ryanair. It found that the companies ticked the "terms of use" box on the airline's website.