Czech Ticket Platform Kiwi.com Wins Against Ryanair

The Czech Republic’s Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of the Czech ticket seller Kiwi.com against Ryanair in a dispute over Kiwi’s practices for handling passenger data.

The legal win is a boost for the Czech company amid tensions with Ryanair which have seen the carrier threatening to reject boarding passes issued by Kiwi. Ryanair had taken the ticket seller to court over its handling of passengers’ personal data, which Ryanair claimed prevented it from contacting passengers and meeting its financial obligations. The Irish air-carrier wanted Kiwi.com to be compelled to share more information about passengers’ booking through the ticket portal.

Czechia’s constitutional court has now overturned an earlier ruling by a regional court in Brno, which had instructed Kiwi.com to adjust information according to Ryanair’s terms and conditions and to share customers’ email and residential addresses as well as their payment details. The Constitutional Court ruled that the earlier judgement ran contrary to the freedom to conduct business and the right to judicial protection. According to the ruling, the other courts had failed to make it clear why customer data should be passed from Kiwi.com to Ryanair.