The European Commission (EC) has reportedly abandoned its investigation into Ryanair's bid to stop third party websites from selling its flights.

Published: 04 Sep 2008

The European Commission (EC) has reportedly abandoned its investigation into Ryanair's bid to stop third party websites from selling its flights.

According to telegraph.co.uk, the EC wrote to Ryanair over concerns that the airline is infringing laws on passenger rights, but yesterday it had closed the investigation, adding that it had received no complaints from passengers.

For its part, Ryanair responded to the EC investigation by submitting a list of 300 websites that it said were engaging in screenscraping, many of which have now stopped selling its flights.

Ryanair recently justified cancellation of bout 500 tickets bought by passengers using other websites. The Commission sought information on whether Ryanair was breaking European law on passenger rights.

Ryanair provided the European Commission with evidence of four specific websites, Bravofly.com, Edreams.com, Volgratis.com, Wegelo.com in which the airline's ticket prices had been inflated by 200 percent or 300 percent, without the consumers knowledge, and these hidden mark-ups are billed to the consumer as if this was the Ryanair ticket price.