Online shopping

The German Federal Union of Consumer Organisations and Associations was challenging before the German courts the way in which air fares were presented in Air Berlin’s computerised booking system, as configured in November 2008: Once the date and airports of departure and arrival had been selected, the booking system displayed a table of possible connections. The final price per person, however, was indicated only for the connection pre-selected by Air Berlin or clicked on by the customer, and not for every connection shown.

According to an article published in "Travel Pulse", the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has released a guidance document for travel agencies that operate Internet flight-search tools on how these agencies should disclose the carriers they do not market in their search results. In particular, DOT will consider it an unfair practice to simply report that “no flight exists that matches” the consumer’s criteria, when in reality the flight does exist, but the agency does not offer it. DOT has provided a 90-day window, starting Aug.

With decision No. 7825/2013 of June 4, 2013, the Court of Milan has held that Ryanair’s refusal to grant access to its database and booking procedures to an online travel agency was an abuse of its dominant market position. Ryanair's General Conditions for the use of its website interdicted any access for commercial purposes an thus excluded OTAs from intermediation business. The court ruled that Ryanair has to allow OTAs access to its database and booking procedures.