Scraping The Surface – Ryanair Notches Up Another Win Against Price Comparison Sites

In recent years Irish airline Ryanair has been involved in numerous legal battles against so-called ‘screen scrapers’ across Europe. ‘Screen scraping’ is the manner in which some price-comparison websites automatically collect and compare data from various service providers’ websites without such service providers’ consent. This practice has led to litigation across Europe. In this most recent decision, the Irish Supreme Court confirmed that the Irish Courts have jurisdiction to deal with alleged screen scraping of the Ryanair site. This decision, which comes in the wake of the CJEU ruling that Ryanair can restrict screen scrapers’ access to its website via its Terms of Use, marks a further victory for the Irish airline in its battle against screen scrapers.