In Italy, Ryanair’s offensive against travel agents draws a $300 million fine

(CN) — Italy’s competition authority on Tuesday hit Ryanair, the Irish airline that’s become Europe’s leading carrier, with a $300 million fine over the airline’s aggressive strategy to force customers to buy tickets directly from its website and app.

In its ruling, the Italian Competition Authority declared Ryanair misused its “dominant position” in the airline market through “an abusive strategy to hinder travel agencies” from booking Ryanair flights between April 2023 and April 2025.

The authority, known as AGCM, said Ryanair handles about 40% of air passengers traveling to and from Italy, making it a dominant player capable of unfairly shouldering out competition. It is one of AGCM’s largest fines ever and its biggest against an airline company.

Saying it would appeal, Ryanair called the AGCM’s findings “bizarre/unsound” and questioned the agency’s methods for determining it had a dominant position in Italy. It also said the finding contravenes a Milan court’s ruling in January 2024 that said Ryanair’s direct distribution model “undoubtedly benefits consumers” and leads to “competitive fares.”

Appeals first go to an administrative court in Lazio, the region that includes Rome, and end with the Council of State, Italy’s supreme administrative court. Companies have been successful in reducing fines, as happened to Amazon in September when the Lazio administrative court nearly halved a $1.3 billion fine against it for abusing its dominant position to favor its own logistics services.

Tuesday’s fine goes to the core of Ryanair’s long-held strategy to keep its no-frills tickets cheap by cutting out brokers and getting customers to buy directly through its website and app.

Michael O’Leary, the 64-year-old combative and famously foul-mouthed Ryanair chief executive officer, has called online travel agencies parasitic “pirates” and argued they add no value while driving up costs and confusing customers.

“Ryanair has grown rapidly in Italy — and in many other markets across Europe — by always offering the lowest air fares in every single market in which we operate,” O’Leary said in a statement. “This legally baseless AGCM ruling, and its absurd 256-million-euro fine undermines consumer protection and competition law.”

The company said it has been fighting for years against online brokers that improperly sell Ryanair tickets by circumventing its security measures.

Following the Milan ruling in 2024, Ryanair began entering into agreements with online agencies, giving them direct access to its website.

Since August 2024, Ryanair has stepped up its fight against brokers by issuing monthly reports purportedly showing how online travel agents routinely overcharge customers for Ryanair tickets by adding exorbitant fees for such things as reserving seats and booking bags.

But AGCM said Ryanair’s efforts to block and hinder brokers from selling Ryanair seats, in particular those combined with flights operated by other carriers or tourism services, were unlawful.

Starting around mid-April 2023, investigators said Ryanair first used facial recognition procedures on its website aimed at users purchasing their tickets through a travel agency.

After AGCM started its probe near the end of 2023, Ryanair “totally or intermittently blocked booking attempts by travel agencies on its website,” the agency said.

In early 2024, Ryanair began entering agreements with online and traditional agencies, but it “restricted agencies from offering Ryanair flights in combination with other services,” the Italian regulator said.

Since airlines were deregulated in the European Union in 1997, Ryanair has grown to become Europe’s leading carrier, adopting Southwest Airlines’ model for low-cost fares. In terms of market capitalization, Ryanair is now valued at over $23 billion, putting it only behind Delta Air Lines.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau