Ryanair wins flight delay compensation battle

Ryanair has won a High Court battle with a firm that specialises in pursuing airlines for flight delay compensation on behalf of thousands of passengers.

For the past two years, Ryanair has refused to deal with firms pursuing EU261 compensation claims, insisting that it will only correspond directly with the individuals concerned.

Where compensation is due, it pays it directly to the individual, bypassing the management company that submitted the claim and so denying the firm the opportunity to deduct its fees before passing the remainder on to its client.

Bott & Co, which handles more than 1,000 flight delay compensation claims a month, launched legal action against Ryanair to force the airline to indemnify them for any unpaid fees they couldn’t recover from customers who had received compensation direct from the airline.

The firm, which charges clients more than 25% of any compensation awarded, said only 70% of Ryanair’s clients paid their fees, so by October 2016 it was already owed £30,000.

However, Judge Edward Murray, said Ryanair ‘has established a straightforward and easy to use process for its passengers to make their flight delay compensation claims, either online or by correspondence, without the assistance of a third party’.

Although it is a long-standing principle of English law that a solicitor has a right to deduct their fees from money held on their clients’ behalf, in dismissing Bott & Co’s claim against Ryanair, the judge said: "Bott are, in effect, simply a claims handling agent in relation to the vast majority of flight delay compensation claims they make.

"Their automated system is specifically designed to ensure that that is the case. Their business model depends on their taking a percentage, by way of fees, of aggregate compensation due in relation to a high volume of straightforward, undisputed statutory compensation claims."

Ryanair spokesman Kenny Jacobs said:"We welcome this London High Court ruling upholding Ryanair’s policy of communicating with, and paying EU261 compensation directly to, our consumers.

This will help prevent ‘claims chaser’ firms like Bott & Co, Fairplane, Hayward Baker, Sky Legal, Flightright, and Flight Heroes, deliberately and needlessly dragging consumers through the courts so they can grab more than 40% of customers’ compensation, for providing no useful service.

"As part of our 2018 ‘Always Getting Better’customer plan, Ryanair has established a dedicated Claims team to process these valid claims within 10 working days and to make it as straightforward as possible for our customers."

David Bott at Bott & Co said: "We are very disappointed in the judgment in our case against Ryanair as we believe it is wrong and we will be appealing the decision.

"For over five years we have worked tirelessly to bring airlines to account under Regulation EC261/2004 and in doing so, to improve the rights of millions of air passengers flying in or out of the UK each year.

"This latest judgment is of course a setback for the freedom of choice of passengers in getting help on their compensation claims in an area of law that is not without its complexity.

"We have always offered the ‘direct to airline’ approach for our customers and provide free letters of claim on our website with a free flight delay checker for passengers to check their eligibility under the Regulation.

"Despite this, thousands of passengers choose to use our paid service rather than having the hassle and additional delays of dealing directly with the airline.

"With no intermediary, who is expected to hold airlines to account?~ Our track record of taking airlines all the way to the Supreme Court for passenger rights speaks for itself."