The Italian association of tour operators and travel agencies (FIAVET) has begun legal action against Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) over its contentious intermediary sales policies, arguing that it has become "impossible" for travel agents to sell the budget carrier's tickets.
FIAVET claims Ryanair has a cumbersome passenger identity verification system, including a for-fee service involving facial recognition and providing a copy of the passenger's identification documentation or collecting a copy of the passenger's signature and identification documentation using the no-fee process.
"The problems of subjecting the passenger to facial recognition (think of the tickets purchased for groups such as for educational trips) become an obstacle to the possibility of purchasing for the agency," reads an April 20 FIAVET statement. The trade group claims Ryanair needs to recognise that travel agents operate as agents of passengers, not of airlines.
FIAVET says its national council has unanimously decided to commence legal action against Ryanair to protect the rights of travel agents and passengers. "We have been dealing with this thorny issue for years. In the past, we have challenged, with various warnings to Ryanair, incorrect behaviour towards travel agents," says Giuseppe Ciminnisi, the President of Fiavet Confcommercio.
Ryanair goes to considerable lengths to prevent shop front and online travel agents from selling their seats. While the low-cost carrier does distinguish between authorised and unauthorised resellers in its terms and conditions, FIAVET says the passenger identification process is unworkable even for authorised agents.
A Swiss court recently ruled in favour of an online travel agency in a long-running case against Ryanair concerning the scrapping of data from the airline's website and the reselling of tickets - a practice Ryanair's terms and conditions explicitly forbid. Following that ruling, Ryanair said the decision would have no practical outcome on their policies. In 2011, FIAVET took action against Ryanair and obtained a compensation order. "But now, we are once again forced to deliberate a judicial action to defend the sacrosanct right to be able to purchase Ryanair tickets," says Ciminnisi. ch-aviation has approached Ryanair for comment.
