2nd Mar 2016 14:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Wednesday said it wants Google to ban travel agency eDreams from advertising for Ryanair flights after the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the advertising on Google was "misleading" to consumers and breached the advertising CAP code.
The UK ASA reviewed a series of complaints from consumers who were misled into believing that links in eDreams advertising for Ryanair and easyJet PLC flights led to official Ryanair and easyJet content.
eDreams responded by arguing that its adverts did not claim to be the official websites for Ryanair and easyJet, but the UK ASA ruled that the travel agency made more prominent references to the two airlines over itself and that the implications suggested they were the official websites.
Ryanair said the eDreams adverts duped consumers into booking higher priced tickets through eDreams rather than those available on Ryanair's own website, an issue which it had previously already complained to Google about.
On the back of the ruling, Ryanair said it now wants Google to ban eDreams advertising until it "stops misleading consumers by passing itself off as Ryanair".
"We again call on Google to delist eDreams until all references to Ryanair have been removed from the eDreams advertising. Ryanair has no difficulty with eDreams promoting itself as eDreams, but when it uses Google's paid for search to pass itself off as 'Ryanair', then consumers are, and will continue to be misled," Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said in a statement.
"Ryanair will be using this latest ASA ruling as part of our continuing legal action against eDreams and Google to put an end to this misleading advertising, which both eDreams and Google are profiting from," he added.
eDreams later responded to the ruling saying that it has "no intention to imitate the appearance of specific airlines".
"We are keen to work with the ASA to ensure that there is never any potential confusion for customers when they search for flight availability on the eDreams website," a spokesperson for eDreams said.
Shares in Ryanair were trading down 1.2% at EUR14.07 on Wednesday afternoon.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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