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OFFICERS FROM IRELAND’S competition watchdog have carried out a surprise inspection at Ryanair’s Dublin office.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) made the unannounced visit at 12:30 pm today on behalf of its Italian counterpart, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM).
“This unannounced inspection forms part of an ongoing investigation by the AGCM into potential breaches of EU competition law. Authorised Officers from the CCPC were supported by colleagues from the AGCM and from An Garda Síochána,” the commission told The Journal in a statement.
Competition watchdog agencies across the European Union can carry out inspections like the one today at the request of their counterparts in different countries.
In a statement, Ryanair welcomed the inspection and said it was part of an investigation in Italy into claims made by Italian online travel agents (OTAs) and traditional travel agencies about “Ryanair’s long running campaign to protect consumers from digital piracy and OTA overcharging”.
This is not the first time Ryanair and Italian competition authorities have clashed - the company was fined €3 million for its baggage policy in 2019. The current Italian Government launched a probe into the airline’s practices last autumn, specifically to look at Ryanair’s potential abuses of its dominant market position.
Ryanair has alleged that online travel agents, including those in Italy, are overcharging customers, referring to the agencies as “pirates”.
“Ryanair and its team are happy to fully cooperate with this investigation into its long running and increasingly successful campaign to prevent digital piracy and consumer overcharging by Italian OTAs,” the statement read.
The airline said that a number of Italian OTAs have recently made deals with the company “under which they agreed to stop screen scraping the Ryanair.com website and to stop overcharging consumers with inflated air fares, inflated ancillary fees and invented fees for non-existent services”.
“The Milan Court of Appeal in Feb 2024 dismissed false claims by Italian OTAs that Ryanair was in breach of Italian competition law,” the airline said.
Ryanair is also involved in a long-running dispute with some of Europe’s largest OTAs, including Booking.com and Kayak.
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Get out of the way and stop holding up traffic!!
@Sean Dalton: Amen to that. We’re paying for them to say hello to us at a time when resources could be far better utilised. They don’t mind, stack of overtime going!
If the garda have to plead with the simplest of things to do as a driver well there is no hope
@Jim O Brien Tech: how about we plead with the Gardai to sod off and solve some crimes instead of blocking up the motorways with this nonsense?
@Adrian O’Donnell: it’s hardly their choice to be doing it. I’m sure they’d rather be doing plenty else.
@Amor: doubt it. Drew Harris has written a blank cheque for overtime solely for theis purpose. Happy days! A stack of cash just in time for Christmas.
@Jim O Brien Tech: cyclists have been pointing this out for decades. Any delay to a driver perceived to be caused by a cyclist can be viewed by the majority of motorists as some kind of affront to their life.
@Amor: As much as I’d like to agree with you, they don’t exactly seem unenthusiastic about it. Especially Drew Harris…
@Stan Papusa: Drew Harris isn’t the one out doing it ! From speaking to Garda friends and family members who are stuck doing it, it’s a pain.
@Amor: not very nice standing outside on a motorway in this weather.
@Adrian O’Donnell: people breaking regulations is a crime and needs to be enforced , stu-pid comment
@dublinsnap: breaking rules is not a crime. You are probably one of those people that fall for the fine media scam. Incase you are confused of where that process is at! It is now at the stage of say nothing in the media and people will believe that there is enforcement powers, because of the previous media coverage. Just to be clear, travelling outside 5k for non essential travel is breaking a rule not a law.
@John Doyle: really? Have they still not passed the law? Have been trying to find out what the story is, but like you say it’s pretty difficult!
@Joe: nope, it’s a tactic. If they get the media to report the introduction of fines. And then stop reporting, majority of people will then assume they are now in effect. Believe me, if it was passed you would not be requiring to research if they were in effect.
@John Doyle: thanks. Actually just found this article, still no fines.
They held up the M50 for a half hour the other day for nothing!!
@Jonnie Marre: there was a check point how is that nothing? 30 minutes of your life to stop the spread of a virus is too much for you? A friend of mine lost 2 hours of his life because he put his hand in a stab wound of a complete stranger to save his life. Had to go in the ambulance with the guy. I am guessing you would watch somebody bleed out or cross the road.
@Craic_a_tower: Can you explain to me how the them check points who are holding up people who are coming and going to work will make any difference to the spread of the virus. Its only putting more stress on the people who are keeping this country going.
@Seamus Donnelly: are you really not able to understand? If you cannot figure out how trying to make people follows the guide lines has an effect then you have a problem. The reality is you know and don’t accept it as necessary.
Some of us really are keeping the country going and don’t need to leave the house. If people are so stressed by. 30 minutes delay they have other issues. I personally think it is more stressful to watch somebody you know get sick with COVID or get it yourself. You basically have a selfish view over convenience versus keeping people safe.
@Craic_a_tower: cop on…it turns into 2-3hrs when people are trying to get home after working a 10hr shift in rush hour traffic, trying to get home to let the childminder get home themselves who might need to be elsewhere, get your head out your b€mhole, alot of people are allowed to go to work and cant work from home, its these people who are p!$$ed off by these checks
@rolyat ecnal: really? Do you think your description even matches 20% of the commuters? You conflated and exaggerated all your points. Thirty minutes delays are now 2-3 hours, everyone does 10 hour shifts, everyone has child minders etc… Yet I am the one that needs to cop on?
Ultimately it doesn’t matter what you think those check points aren’t going anywhere and this article is about not driving dangerously at them. If you are this angry about it you are just adding to your own stress levels if it effects you. Better to think of it as a good thing for community safety to keep calm rather than add to people’s upset. I don’t think you actually care about upset people because if you did you wouldn’t want more people to get sick.
@Craic_a_tower: obnoxious d/ck…. “some off us are really keeping the country going and dont need to leave the house” …… you really aren’t very bright, so all the manufacturering companies round Ballymount, Sandyford and Swords industrial estates which are allowed to stay open aswell as the construction sites in Dublin and surrounding areas only add upto 20%….the main motorways out of Dublin come 4pm are at a standstill for hours….
@Craic_a_tower: Ya have not answerd my question how is check points stopping the spread of the virus. Most of them people are going to and from work why dont they set up the check points at 2pm in the day and 9pm at night if they want to pretend their stopping the virus. Them Idiots setting up check points at rush hour no wonder people are annoyed. Ya its ok for people like you who can roll out of bed and work from home. What about the people who work in construction and travel up and down from places like Cavan, Leitrim, and Longford etc. It could take two hours for some of them to get home so stop talking about its only a half an hour when ya obviously haven’t commuted that far before.
@rolyat ecnal: I am not very bright but you don’t get that the 20% I was referring to was those that worked 10 hour shifts, have to drive through check points, have childminders they must get back to, are stuck 2-3 hours etc… Not what you made up to say were 20%. Make up your own arguments and blame me for telling you how it is. Some people are making sure PUP payments go out and if you don’t think PUP is keeping the country going you are delusional.
@Seamus Donnelly: no I did answer your question because nobody doesn’t understand why there are restrictions. You are intentionally ignore what you know because you FEEL it is not needed. That is not the same as not knowing why there are restrictions. It may very well take them hours to get home but that is not extra delays alone. You are responding to a post about a 30 minute delay. You don’t think it would be more stressful to see somebody struggling to breath than being stuck in traffic?
@Craic_a_tower: I never said anything about being against restrictions but i am against the way they are being inforced like most other people. It takes a certain type of stupid to link someone trying to breath and being stuck in traffic your post makes no sense. The simple facts of the matter is check points dont stop the spread of the virus. The only piss people of who is trying to work and follow the rules.
@Seamus Donnelly: not true, you just think they don’t work. It doesn’t matter what you think they work and they are staying. Get used to it don’t blame me and being angry about it won’t help of change it. You are making yourself unhappy rather than learning to live with reality. Doesn’t actually bother me who do you think is in a better head space?
@Craic_a_tower: Can you send me a link to back up your statement that check points stops the spread of viruses lol. Id say il be a while waiting.
@Seamus Donnelly: are you saying it both restricted movement and doesn’t? Restrictions of movement do restrict the spread of the virus. You just don’t want to accept logic
@Seamus Donnelly: are you saying it both restricts movement and doesn’t? Restrictions of movement do restrict the spread of the virus. You just don’t want to accept logic. You aren’t really asking valid questions you are just being obtuse.
@Craic_a_tower: can you send me a link to back up your statement that check points not restrictions help stop spreading the virus. Ya can keep digging all you want lol ya know im right. Ya got mixed up in your own bull.
Checkpoints are here to stay, if we all just got on with it, checkpoints would run smoothly, their is plenty of signage before the checkpoint so don’t be that driver who won’t pull Into the correct lane until the last possible moment as the cones force them, we are in this together. Drive safe Ireland
@Rob LLoyd: **Tin foil helmet disclaimer**
Check points and extra Garda visibility are here to stay not because of Covid, but because of upcoming civil disobedience in relation to our economic future and the Euro.
It may take another year or two but banning protests is on the cards but not for health reasons.
@Vladimir Macro: Never let a good crisis go to waste! Gonna be an interesting next decade or two as the PTB increase their grip.
The check points are on the feckin motorway ffs , get off the road Garda
If someone hasn’t the cop on to slow down before a checkpoint then a plea in the media won’t help. Its like when you see a sign saying no dumping … like yea the illegal dumpers we only doing it because nobody asked them to stop
This all depends on locations of checkpoints. If an HGV is on the motorway doing 110kph the stopping distance is huge
@Declan Edward: truck should not be above 100 kph
@Robert Beatty: hgv should not be doing 80kph
@patrick boland: correct
@Declan Edward: the motorway signs start from a kilometre out that I’ve seen. And like the other poster said. They should be at 80.
Get off d m7 ter doin nothing only holding up people who were told to go to work
Not the best of weather today to be putting out checkpoints.
Is there a list of the locations of the static checkpoints somewhere?
@Newto2016: Google maps… Orange/red strip!!
@David: David you win the internet today.
It’s funny how often you hear people saying that the NI border cannot (or should not) be controlled, when we obviously have the will and manpower to mount all these useless checkpoints which further aggravate people and slow down the economy.
Instead of following in the footsteps of Honduras, Venezuela, Eritrea and Myanmar when it comes to restrictions, maybe we should pay closer attention to the likes of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Iceland, Norway and so on…
Perhaps there is no simple, single answer as to how they did, but for sure they haven’t done it by merely mobilizing the entire police force, beating up demonstrators or telling people to wash their hands…
@Stan Papusa: are you just using the same paragraph for all articles about covid or is it just coincidence I’ve seen it twice in 2 articles
@Francis: Mostly coincidence, though it some cases the repetition is intentional.
Gotta hammer the point home, too many people living inside the bubble!
One sentence you don’t want to hear at a checkpoint, STEP OUTTA THAT VEHICLE.
Loving the power and control just like the government are
This is actually helpful for the guy in the van in front of me this morning who did not bother to slow down until the last second. I did not see the flashing lights ahead because of the size of the van and his inability to slow down was certainly a problem.
I do not mind the checkpoints except during school runs. Hopefully they figure out how to make this manageable for the month of November
@Seeking Truth:
You were obviously driving too close to him, which is extremely dangerous.
Take some personal responsibility and stop moaning about other road users.
Having checkpoints on motorways is a crazy decision.
Wait till the next “ blue flu”
have your say