A travel company alleged to have introduced a service charge which affected only Ryanair customers was yesterday refused a High Court order preventing Ryanair from terminating a ticket sales agreement. Dun Laoghaire Travel Ltd last week secured a temporary order restraining Ryanair from terminating the agreement but was yesterday refused an interlocutory injunction which would have restrained Ryanair until the trial of the action.
In his judgment on the interlocutory application, the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, said that, until March last, the commission paid by Ryanair to the travel company was 9 per cent on sales of the airline's tickets, but this was reduced to 7.5 per cent.
A dispute had arisen about a service charge levied by the travel company on customers who made airline reservations worth £80 or less. The travel company claimed it had introduced the charge last January because the cost of servicing low airfares was not remunerated by the commission.
But Ryanair claimed the charge was an attempt to make good the loss which the travel company said it would suffer as a result of the lower commission.
Travel agents had objected to the drop in commission and had taken concerted action, the judge said. In effect, the Irish Travel Agents' Association had decided to boycott sales of Ryanair tickets. The Competition Authority decided this breached competition legislation and the boycott ceased.
Mr Justice Costello said the sworn statement grounding the application for a restraining order on behalf of Dun Laoghaire Travel had stated the £5 service charge was not directed against Ryanair but was in respect of all airlines.
This was clearly not so, the judge said. The affidavit had not fully set out the proper situation. The true situation was that the charge was only imposed on Ryanair and those of its customers who wished to travel on a budget air ticket of £80 or less. Other airlines did not have fares as low as Ryanair.
After failing to reach agreement about the service charge, Ryanair told the central reservation system Dun Laoghaire Travel was no longer its agent, he said.
Ryanair would have been entitled to terminate the contract by giving the travel company proper notice, which would have been about seven weeks from October 13th last. It seemed that the damages to Dun Laoghaire Travel were the commissions it would have earned had proper notice been given.
In these circumstances, damages would be a proper and adequate remedy should the action go to hearing. He said he was refusing interlocutory relief on that ground.
He said Ryanair was apprehensive that if the injunction was granted, all other agents would probably follow the action of Dun Laoghaire Travel.