eDreams ODIGEO Welcomes Landmark Italian Antitrust Ruling Against Ryanair, Citing Systemic Abuse of Market Power and Financial Market Misrepresentation
eDreams ODIGEO (eDO), the world’s largest travel subscription platform, has welcomed a landmark ruling by Italy’s Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, or AGCM) that found Ryanair Holdings Plc and its operating subsidiary Ryanair DAC guilty of a “very serious” abuse of dominant market position. The decision represents one of the most consequential antitrust rulings in the European aviation and online travel distribution sectors in recent years.
The AGCM’s findings strongly reinforce eDreams ODIGEO’s long-standing position that Ryanair systematically leveraged its dominant position in short-haul air travel to unlawfully restrict competition, coerce independent online travel agencies (OTAs), and manipulate market narratives. Crucially, the ruling goes beyond competition law violations, uncovering evidence of financial market deception that raises broader concerns regarding corporate governance, disclosure practices, and compliance with securities regulations.
A Ruling That Vindicates Years of Legal Challenges
For eDreams ODIGEO, the ruling represents full vindication after years of legal disputes, regulatory complaints, and public confrontations with Ryanair. According to the AGCM, Ryanair orchestrated a deliberate, multi-layered strategy aimed at excluding OTAs from the market unless they submitted to restrictive contractual conditions imposed by the airline.
The Authority concluded that Ryanair abused its dominance by deploying technical, commercial, and reputational tools in a coordinated manner to distort competition. These actions were not accidental or isolated but formed part of a calculated exclusionary strategy designed to eliminate or severely weaken independent intermediaries in the airline distribution ecosystem.
Guillaume Teissonnière, General Counsel at eDreams ODIGEO, described the ruling as a watershed moment for competition enforcement in Europe’s travel sector.
Today’s Antitrust ruling exposes systemic illegality at the heart of Ryanair, proven by shocking evidence confiscated from their own headquarters. It details a calculated plot orchestrated not only to abuse market dominance but also to actively deceive financial markets about the self-inflicted consequences.
He further emphasized that the ruling aligns with a growing body of judicial and regulatory decisions across Europe that Ryanair has repeatedly chosen to disregard, calling for coordinated enforcement action at both national and EU levels.
Evidence of Financial Market Deception Uncovered
One of the most striking aspects of the AGCM’s decision is its detailed examination of internal Ryanair documents seized during a dawn raid at the airline’s headquarters. These materials revealed that senior Ryanair executives knowingly misrepresented the causes of a sales decline in late 2023 and early 2024 to shareholders, the Board, and the wider financial market.
According to the Authority, the downturn in ticket sales was not the result of external factors or actions by OTAs, as Ryanair publicly claimed. Instead, it was directly caused by Ryanair’s own internal decision to block bookings made via travel agencies through a technical blockade program internally codenamed “Shield.”
Internal reports explicitly acknowledged that the activation of enhanced Shield measures caused Ryanair flights to disappear from OTA booking platforms. Despite this, Ryanair publicly blamed OTAs for an alleged “boycott,” presenting a narrative that the AGCM found to be knowingly false.
The ruling highlights a communication from Ryanair’s CEO to the company’s Board dated 23 January 2024, stating that OTAs had “suddenly removed Ryanair flights” from their platforms. The AGCM concluded that this communication demonstrated a clear intention to conceal the airline’s own responsibility for the sales decline, both internally and externally.
This conduct, the Authority noted, contradicts Ryanair’s own Code of Business Conduct, which requires fair and accurate disclosures. More significantly, it raises serious questions regarding compliance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and applicable U.S. securities laws, given that Ryanair Holdings Plc is listed on both Euronext Dublin and the Nasdaq exchange.
A Coordinated, Multi-Stage Strategy to Eliminate Competition
The AGCM’s ruling provides a comprehensive breakdown of what it characterizes as a deliberate, multi-stage exclusionary strategy designed to marginalize and ultimately eliminate independent travel agencies from the airline distribution market.
1. Illegal Technical Blockade (“Shield”)
At the core of the strategy was Ryanair’s implementation of a technical system designed to identify and block OTA bookings at the earliest stage of the purchase process. Internal documents cited by the Authority explicitly stated that the goal was to prevent OTAs from generating post-booking revenue and to force passengers to book directly with Ryanair.
By blocking intermediaries, Ryanair sought to appropriate their customer base while leveraging its dominant position to dictate the terms of market access. The AGCM found that this technical blockade constituted an unlawful restriction of competition.
2. Discriminatory Customer-Facing Measures
The eDreams ruling further found that Ryanair introduced customer-facing obstacles specifically targeted at OTA users. Among the most controversial measures was the implementation of a facial verification process that applied selectively to passengers booking through travel agencies.
The Authority concluded that this invasive requirement was deliberately designed to increase inconvenience for OTA customers and discourage indirect bookings. Beyond competition law implications, the AGCM noted that this practice raises significant data protection concerns and may constitute unlawful processing of sensitive biometric data.
These findings have broader regulatory implications, potentially triggering enforcement action by data protection authorities, including Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, given Ryanair’s role as a data controller under the GDPR.
3. Denigration and Smear Campaigns
Simultaneously with the technical and procedural barriers, Ryanair conducted what the AGCM described as a “massive smear campaign” against OTAs. Public statements accused intermediaries of overcharging consumers, misleading customers, and harming passengers—claims that internal Ryanair communications directly contradicted.
Confiscated emails revealed Ryanair executives acknowledging that eDreams Prime subscribers often paid less for Ryanair flights than customers booking directly on Ryanair’s own website. One internal message explicitly questioned how Prime subscribers could be paying less than direct customers, undermining Ryanair’s public narrative.
The AGCM noted that this finding aligns with earlier rulings, including a decision by Barcelona Commercial Court No. 12, which convicted Ryanair of unfair competition based on similar misrepresentations.
4. Coercive Distribution Agreements
Finally, the Authority found that Ryanair used the cumulative pressure created by the blockade, customer discrimination, and denigration to force OTAs into signing so-called “Approved OTA” agreements.
These eDreams contracts imposed restrictive conditions that limited agencies’ ability to compete effectively, including constraints on pricing, marketing, and customer communication. The AGCM concluded that Ryanair was only able to impose such terms because of the unlawful obstacles it had already put in place.
Internal documents confirmed that Ryanair’s strategy was to remain aggressive toward OTAs that refused to become partners. eDreams ODIGEO consistently rejected these agreements, opting instead to pursue legal remedies to defend open and fair competition—a stance the AGCM’s ruling now fully validates.
A Broader Pattern of Regulatory Non-Compliance
The AGCM characterized Ryanair’s conduct as a “very serious” breach of competition law, but eDreams ODIGEO argues that the implications extend far beyond antitrust enforcement.
Ryanair has faced adverse rulings across multiple legal domains, including consumer protection, passenger rights, data protection, and civil litigation in jurisdictions such as Spain and Germany. Despite these decisions, the airline has repeatedly failed to bring its practices into compliance, according to eDreams ODIGEO.
This eDreams pattern, eDO contends, reflects a systemic corporate culture that treats regulatory penalties as a cost of doing business rather than binding legal obligations.
In light of the AGCM’s findings, eDreams ODIGEO is calling on the European Commission, national competition authorities, financial market regulators, and data protection agencies to launch coordinated investigations into Ryanair’s conduct.
The company argues that only a comprehensive, EU-wide enforcement response can restore confidence in fair competition, protect consumers, and ensure that dominant market players are held to the same legal standards as all other participants.
As the digital travel ecosystem continues to evolve, the ruling sends a clear signal that abuse of market power—particularly when combined with misleading financial disclosures and misuse of personal data—will face serious regulatory consequences.
The Italian Antitrust Authority’s ruling marks a decisive moment for competition enforcement in the European travel and aviation markets. By exposing both anti-competitive practices and alleged financial market deception, the decision reinforces the principle that market leadership does not confer immunity from the law.
For eDreams ODIGEO and the broader OTA sector, the ruling represents not only legal vindication but also a critical step toward restoring transparency, fairness, and accountability in airline distribution. As regulators across Europe consider their next steps, the case may well become a defining precedent for how dominant digital and transportation platforms are regulated in the years ahead.
About eDreams ODIGEO
eDreams ODIGEO is the world’s leading travel subscription platform. It pioneered Prime, the first and largest travel subscription programme, which has topped over 7.7 million members since launching in 2017. Prime members are subscribed to global travel, gaining access to a comprehensive multi-product offering for all their travel needs—including hotels, rail, flights, dynamic packages and car rental, among others— compounded by industry-leading flexibility features and exclusive, member-only benefits. This entire Prime experience is powered by a proprietary, industry-leading AI platform that delivers a hyper-personalised service to its members. Listed on the Spanish Stock Market, the Company operates in 44 markets through its renowned brands—eDreams, GO Voyages, Opodo, Travellink, and the metasearch engine Liligo—to deliver a smarter, hyper-personalised, and comprehensive travel experience globally.
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