Ryanair charges ‘should be scrapped’

RYANAIR, the airline that charges €10 (£12) for using a debit card to buy a return ticket online, will have difficulty defending the fees during a British antitrust investigation, lawyers said.

Such charges are misleading and should be scrapped, the British Office of Fair Trading said. Ryanair’s claim that its “administration fee” isn’t affected by the ruling is unlikely to hold up, said Robert Vidal, a competition lawyer at Taylor Wessing in London.

“Calling the charge an ‘administration fee’ or mentioning the option of a pre-paid MasterCard is unlikely to make any difference,” Vidal said in an interview.