Europe's biggest airline is attacking Google over its 'misleading' search ads

Ryanair, Europe's biggest airline, is attacking Google for its "misleading" search ads and is calling on the search giant to enforce advertising transparency."

In a press release, Ryanair points to a search for "Ryanair," which returns an ad from what appears to be the official airline itself. 

Ryanair

In fact, Ryanair says this ad is from an unaffiliated "screenscraper" website called eDreams, which is "masquerading" as Ryanair and "unlawfully" selling its flights.

Here's the eDreams site the search ad redirects to:

Ryanair

Ryanair says sites such as eDreams have caused considerable problems for its customers, including failing or refusing to pass on information to the airline and passengers regarding details such as flight time changes, check-in information, special needs assistance, and contact information, which has resulted in missed flights in some cases.

Ryanair says it has taken legal action against several screenscraper websites across Europe. The Court of Hamburg ruled in January that eDreams had been using an unlawful subdomain and was misleading customers into thinking it had an official partnership with Ryanair.

But Ryanair is demanding Google works harder to prevent these issues from occurring in the first place.

In the press release, Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs, says the company doesn't have a problem with Google advertising in general, but adds that it is "unfair" that it is sometimes used as a way to mislead customers.

He adds: "Ryanair will continue to pursue screenscraper websites such as eDreams to prevent Europe's consumers from being misled over price and booking conditions. We would again urge customers to book directly on the Ryanair.com website to guarantee the lowest fares and best customer service. In the meantime, we call on Google to enforce greater transparency of its advertising to prevent any more customers from being misled and overcharged."

Business Insider has contacted Google for comment, and we'll update this article once we hear back.

We have also contacted the UK's Advertising Standards Authority, to check whether Ryanair has made an official complaint.