A Czech court has ruled in favor of the Czech company Kiwi.com against Ryanair in a dispute over Kiwi's practices for handling passenger data. Ryanair had threatened to deny boarding licenses issued by Kiwi.com, but this was not justified, according to Constitutional Court Judge Kateřina Šimáčková.
Ryanair has sued Kiwi.com for managing the personal data of passengers, which Ryanair has claimed prevented it from contacting passengers in the event of flight changes. The Irish carrier wanted Kiwi.com to be forced to share more passenger data.
However, the Constitutional Court has now overturned a previous ruling by the Brno Regional Court (and then upheld the appeal from the Olomouc High Court), which ordered Kiwi.com to adjust the information in accordance with Ryanair's terms and conditions and share the addresses of e-mail and residence, as well as payment details of customers.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the previous ruling was contrary to the freedom to conduct business.
Ryanair wants passengers to book tickets only on the Ryanair website and not through third parties, saying this is the only way consumers are guaranteed the lowest fares.
However, Kiwi.com believes that they should be allowed to sell Ryanair tickets, both individually and on a compound trip. He also uses his own paper to print boarding passes. Ryanair recently announced that it will only accept its own boarding passes, labeling Kiwi boarding passes as "fake", but kiwi.com reported that he was unaware that his boarding passes had been refused by Ryanair.