Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
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Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#2Though I am not a legal expert, it is fascinating, that both European companies had this dispute in front of US courts. One hypothesis would be, that Ryan Air lawyers saw higher chances there than in EU courts.
Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#3Pretty light article, does anyone have any more context? Does this set a strong precedent for all these types of sites? Booking.com wouldn't be the only site reselling airline tickets, in fact I wasn't even aware they did flights.
Does Booking.com do something particularly bad compared to something like SkyScanner or Google flights?
> "We expect that this ruling will end the internet piracy and overcharging perpetrated on both airlines and other travel companies and consumers by the unlawful activity of OTA (online travel agent) Pirates," Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said.
Why is it almost always cheaper to buy through some weird 3rd party than with the airline directly? Sometimes it's a few bucks and I book with the airline directly, but sometimes it's over $50 cheaper to book through some 3rd party I've never heard of.
Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#4Though I am not a legal expert, it is fascinating, that both European companies had this dispute in front of US courts. One hypothesis would be, that Ryan Air lawyers saw higher chances there than in EU courts.
Isn’t Booking an American company now? The company in Amsterdam is a subsidiary of Delaware company with HQ in Connecticut.
Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#5There was similar case with Kiwi.com.
Issue was that Kiwi pocketed refounds, would not inform customers of flight changes, changing baggage was very hard...
Ryanair service is OK (if you take it as a bus company). There do no play dead as Airbnb support. During covid they provided refunds sooner than Lufthanza for example.
Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#6Pretty light article, does anyone have any more context? Does this set a strong precedent for all these types of sites? Booking.com wouldn't be the only site reselling airline tickets, in fact I wasn't even aware they did flights. Does Booking.com do something particularly bad compared to something like SkyScanner or Google flights? > "We expect that this ruling will end the internet piracy and overcharging perpetrat…
I could be mistaken, but from what I'm understanding is that Booking.com books the flights for you, by automating the booking process on Ryanair (and subsequently add their own fees), whereas the likes of SkyScanner show you the information, then direct you to the Ryanair website to book through the airline.
Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#7Pretty light article, does anyone have any more context? Does this set a strong precedent for all these types of sites? Booking.com wouldn't be the only site reselling airline tickets, in fact I wasn't even aware they did flights. Does Booking.com do something particularly bad compared to something like SkyScanner or Google flights? > "We expect that this ruling will end the internet piracy and overcharging perpetrat…
I could be mistaken, but from what I'm understanding is that Booking.com books the flights for you, by automating the booking process on Ryanair (and subsequently add their own fees), whereas the likes of SkyScanner show you the information, then direct you to the Ryanair website to book through the airline.
You're right, I was mixing concepts. SkyScanner and Google flights both do what you say. The companies that SkyScanner and co find are what Ryanair are complaining about. So the likes of; Trip, MyTrip, Kiwi, Expedia, GoToGate etc. I wonder if this will affect all of them.
Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#8Did Ryanair try blocking their IP’s or adding captchas? Or did they sue because the cat and mouse game became too much?
Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#9Did Ryanair try blocking their IP’s or adding captchas? Or did they sue because the cat and mouse game became too much?
If you play the whackamole game with IP blocking and captchas, you'll be playing it forever. A court ruling against the practice is much more effective.
Re: Ryanair wins screen scraping case against Booking.com in US court ruling
#10pretty bad precedent, id argue that anything thats publicly accesible is free to be scraped. So unless they did something illegal via bypassing security, then this sets a really bad tone for internet archival, web scraping and data collection in the future.