Court rules Dublin Airport breached competition law over efforts to prevent car hire firm using site

DUBLIN AIRPORT AUTHORITY (DAA) acted in clear breach of competition law when it sought to prevent a low-cost car hire firm from using facilities at Dublin Airport to pick up and drop off customers from its base outside the airport, the High Court has ruled.

ER Travel Limited, which has been operating an off-airport, car-hire service at Dublin Airport since 2015, claimed DAA had infringed EU and Irish competition legislation by abusing its dominant position.

The company, which operates a similar model at Cork Airport as well as other airports in the UK and the US, also argued DAA had not afforded it fair procedures as well as maintaining that DAA’s bye-laws relating to businesses operating at Dublin Airport were ultra vires.

Lawyers for ER claimed that DAA’s actions were motivated by its desire to protect revenue streams derived from its car hire concessionaires at Dublin Airport who acted in concert to prevent it from operating its off-airport car hire business model.

The DAA maintained that it was clear that businesses wanting to operate car hire services at Dublin Airport would have to participate and be successful in a tender process.

It issued a cease-and-desist letter to ER in March 2016 claiming the company was in breach of its bye-laws and that it could not operate a shuttle service to collect or drop off customers at Dublin Airport.

While airport police have taken enforcement operations against ER sporadically over the years, several prosecutions taken by DAA against ER for alleged breaches of the bye-laws have been dismissed or struck out,

The High Court heard DAA has also received complaints from on-airport car hire firms who operate from Dublin Airport as well as the Car Rental Council of Ireland (CRCI) about ER’s operations.

The CRCI wanted “immediate action” from DAA to prevent ER using pick-up and set-down facilities at the airport, while Europcar warned that the need for car hire firms to compete with ER’s low prices would affect DAA revenue.

The High Court heard that DAA received over €34 million from car hire concessionaires in 2024.

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In a 128-page ruling, Judge Max Barrett said the conduct of DAA and other car hire firms was directed towards the practical object of preventing ER for using facilities at Dublin Airport, specifically the ability to pick up and drop off customers.

The judge said such concerted practice constituted a clear breach of EU and Irish competition law by preventing, restricting or distorting competition for short-term car rental services at Dublin Airport.

He said it created significant operational uncertainty for ER which made its off-airport business model more burdensome and less attractive to customers.

The judge also noted that email communications possessed “all the classic hallmarks typically observed when incumbent operators solicit coordinated protections from DAA against a disruptive market entrant.”

Judge Barrett said DAA carried a special responsibility under competition law as an undertaking which had a dominant position that controlled access to a market.

He said such a status did not grant DAA the unilateral right to foreclose competition based on a preference for one business model over another.

The judge ruled that there was no contractual obligation within tender documents to support the contention that it would be reasonable for licensed car-hire firms at Dublin Airport to expect DAA to intervene against ER on foot of a complaint.

He claimed DAA’s claim that it needed to generate sufficient revenue to maintain passenger charges at levels mandated by the Commission for Aviation Regulation was “untenable” and could not be used to justify anti-competitive conduct.

Judge Barrett also ruled that DAA had exercised its bye-laws unlawfully in order to prevent ER from competing with on-airport car hire firms.

However, he dismissed ER’s claims of unfair procedures over the collapsed prosecutions and inconsistent enforcement of the firm’s operations between Dublin and Cork airports.

Declaring that DAA had breached sections of the Competition Act 2002 and made bye-laws which were ultra vires, he said no injunction was necessary as “DAA cannot elect to act unlawfully.”