EU Court Orders Ryanair to Drop Fake Discounts; Portuguese Travellers Likely to Benefit

The Brussels Commercial Court has ordered Ryanair to clean up its online sales tactics within 3 months, a decision that could reshape how the low-cost giant markets fares to anyone booking from the EU — including the hundreds of thousands of Portuguese passengers who rely on the airline for weekend getaways and family visits.

Why This Matters

• Daily fine of €5,000 kicks in after the 3-month grace period, capped at €1 M, if the carrier ignores the ruling.

• The judgment targets scarcity pop-ups, phantom discounts and opaque baggage fees, tools Ryanair also deploys on its Portuguese website.

• Consumer-rights groups say the case sets a precedent EU regulators can copy-paste; Lisbon buyers could soon see cleaner booking screens.

• ANAC — Portugal’s Civil Aviation Authority — is watching closely and may align local enforcement with the Belgian verdict.

The Court’s Red Line

The Belgian judges zeroed in on three practices they say manipulate customers’ emotions rather than inform them:

“Only 3 seats left at this price” alerts that are not backed by real-time inventory.

Percentage-off banners based on invented reference prices.

Bundles that hide the true cost of cabin bags, seat selection or priority boarding until the final click.

If Ryanair eliminates those tools, the company pays nothing. Should it fail, the €5,000-a-day meter starts and stops only when the total reaches €1 M. The carrier is still reviewing whether to appeal the restrictive portion of the ruling; however, it publicly celebrated the court’s separate confirmation that charging for larger cabin bags is legal under EU rules.

How We Got Here

Test Achats — Belgium’s equivalent to Portugal’s Deco Proteste — filed the lawsuit in 2022, backed by the pan-European umbrella Euroconsumers. Their lawyers argued that flash messages and hidden extras breach the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. The court agreed on the pressure-selling elements but dismissed claims against dynamic pricing and family-seat fees.

This is not Ryanair’s first friction with regulators:

• In Spain (2024) it absorbed €107 M of a record €179 M fine shared with four rivals for abusive ancillary charges.

• The Italian competition authority (2025) imposed €256 M for limiting ticket sales through third-party sites.

• In Portugal, a 2023 Braga court ruling questioning cabin-bag fees was annulled on a technicality and is queued for retrial.

The Bigger EU Trend

Aviation watchdogs from Copenhagen to Athens are turning the screw on “dark patterns” — design tricks that nudge shoppers into spending more. Last year 21 airlines, among them TAP Air Portugal, pledged to tone down exaggerated green claims after a Commission probe. Brussels insiders say the Ryanair verdict may accelerate a draft regulation that would ban scarcity timers shorter than 60 minutes for any transport ticket sold online.

What This Means for Residents

Portuguese travellers stand to gain clearer price breakdowns and fewer last-second add-ons when they book cheap seats to Brussels, Paris or Porto Santo.

Short term:

• Flights originating in Belgium must show up-front baggage prices and ditch fake discounts by late April. If Ryanair uses one global booking engine, that cleaner interface is likely to spill over to Ryanair.pt as well.

Medium term:

• Should ANAC mirror the Belgian stance — a move consumer advocates in Lisbon are already lobbying for — domestic enforcement could extend the same protection to routes departing Faro, Porto and Ponta Delgada.

Practical tips now:

• Take screenshots of every fare step; any mismatch between advertised and final price strengthens a refund claim under EU law.

• Compare with rivals: easyJet and Volotea are under similar scrutiny and may quietly drop aggressive prompts, narrowing Ryanair’s perceived price edge.

Industry Reaction

While Ryanair insisted its base fare remains “the lowest in Europe,” marketing chief Dara Brady welcomed the part of the decision that upheld the bag policy, saying it protects the carrier’s “à-la-carte model.” Behind the scenes, airlines fear a domino effect: if pressure-selling widgets vanish, average ancillary revenue — now roughly €22 per passenger according to IdeaWorks — could slide.

Consultants at Mott MacDonald note that a 5 % dip in extras for Ryanair could erase €350 M in annual turnover, potentially forcing the airline to inch base fares upward.

Next Steps

Ryanair must file an implementation report with the Belgian court by May. Euroconsumers pledges to audit the site and crowd-source evidence from passengers. ANAC told this publication it will “evaluate the ruling’s relevance for Portuguese consumers” during its March board meeting.

For now, nothing changes the moment you search for a spring flight; but if you notice fewer blinking alerts urging immediate purchase, the Brussels judgment is already reshaping your screen.