Ryanair facing legal action from flight delay compensation claims company

FairPlane UK has taken legal action against Ryanair after saying that the airline is guilty of “defamation, harassment and unlawful interference”.

The flight compensation company has said that Ryanair has been sending letters to its clients in an attempt to persuade them to stop using the company to help them with their claims for flight delays and cancellations. It said that the airline has been intimidating passengers with the letters, in which it has questioned whether passengers have actually agreed to assign their claims to FairPlane UK. FairPlane UK also says that the airline has been telling its clients that the claims company has told them that it owns their compensation claims. FairPlane UK said that this was incorrect.

Law firm Debenhams Ottaway, which is acting on behalf of FairPlane UK on this matter, has written to Ryanair asking for an apology and damages.

Ryanair has been advising FairPlane UK’s customers that if they appear to have a valid claim, then they should make the claim themselves, rather than employing FairPlane to make the claim on their behalf.

FairPlane UK has stressed that one of the many reasons that so many passengers request help from companies like itself is because Ryanair has historically been “in the habit of rejecting or simply ignoring” many valid claims for compensation.

FairPlane UK director Daniel Morris said: “They’re trying to disrupt the client’s relations with us. At this point, it’s a bit late [for Ryanair to offer compensation] because the client has already come to us.”

“In many cases the main reason Ryanair pays up is because we get involved.

“They reject the vast majority of claims, then the client comes to us and we write to the airline. We have a 94 per cent success rate in court proceedings. They’re not allowed to stop a person going to get legal representation.

“They know we force them to pay and if we get removed from that equation it saves them money.”

FairPlane’s figures show that it has been forced to issue legal proceedings against Ryanair on 45% of claims.

In response, Ryanair said it was fighting back against “claims chaser” firms that it believes are charging passengers up to 50% of their compensation.

“We urge all customers with valid EU261 compensation claims to submit their claims directly to Ryanair. Customers with valid claims who claim directly from Ryanair will receive 100% of their EU261 compensation settlement without the deduction of these excessive claims chaser fees,” said the airline.

Mark Dugdale