A claim by the Ryanair chief executive, Mr Michael O'Leary, that the person who complained to advertising watchdogs in the UK about a "misleading" e-mail advertisement was "probably an employee of one of our competitors" has been rejected by the complainant.
Mr Torben Fink-Jensen, a London marketing executive, contacted The Irish Times yesterday to express his disquiet at Mr O'Leary's claim. "I have nothing to do with any of Ryanair's competitors," he said. Nor did he work in the European aviation industry.
Mr Fink-Jensen said he lodged the complaint after attempting to book flights on 10 separate occasions at quoted "sale" prices. On each occasion, he said, he spent up to half an hour on Ryanair's website, trying without success to purchase either £1 or £3 return tickets. "They made it clear on the e-mail those prices were available. In fact, they were not," he said.
When he subsequently contacted Ryanair's customer service department, he added, "they were totally dismissive".
The UK Advertising Standards Authority this week ruled the e-mail ad was "misleading" because it failed to stipulate that some prices would be higher at the weekends.
And yesterday the agency rebutted a claim by Mr O'Leary that it had no authority to adjudicate on such e-mail transmissions.
An ASA spokeswoman said: "We are responsible for commercial e-mails, which are treated the same as direct mail sent in the post." She added that the ASA made no distinction between indiscriminate messaging and that directed at a "club" or customer base.
However, Mr O'Leary said yesterday he stood over his stance against the agency. "We are an Irish company sending an e-mail from Ireland. They the ASA have no control over it, and they're not going to make us change it." He described the ASA as "a quango that has nothing better to do with its time".
The complaint was the third upheld by the ASA against Ryanair in the past 12 months.
