Screenscraping is LEGAL!
Frankfurt on the Main, June 2009

Since 2007, there have been discussions and legal disputes in regards to whether screenscraping is legal or not.

In summary, there are five current European verdicts stating that screenscraping is legal and without punitive measures. There is only one single preliminary injunction against screenscraping which is in fact not a verdict and deals mainly in form and content with the resale on one’s own behalf in regards to Dynamic Packaging rather than with screenscraping. Insiders are presuming that the ruling judge wants to relinquish the decision on this problem to the main proceedings. Considering the complexity of the judicial questions raised, this seems to be a reasonable course of action to us.

At HitchHiker the decision is unanimous: Screenscraping is legal! Therefore, HitchHiker will continue to offer its WebFareEngine, which reads or screenscrapes the pages of web based airlines.

Is this safe especially in regards to EasyJet? The answer is a definite yes.

EasyJet reserves the right to disable touristic links (FVW 10/2009) regarding the API and according to a press release from Travolution from May, 22nd 2009 it seems that EasyJet will be putting this into effect as of September 2009.

Now everyone can come to the conclusion as to which is the safer method: Screenscraping or an API-contract with a stipulation to disable this service at any time?

Furthermore, the API-contract which was offered to us by EasyJet includes an additional fee of 4,- for each segment, meaning 8,- per round trip! You don’t have to be a Professor of Economic Science to ascertain the competitiveness of this price on the market. Adding an additional surcharge in order to earn a little on top for yourself is a surefire way to put yourself out of business. All this does not apply when screenscraping the EasyJet site.

In regards to functionalities, HitchHiker offers everything that the EasyJet site itself offers.

“We will continue to offer our WebFareEngine with a clear conscience since all verdicts declare the legitimacy of screenscraping.", says Nicole Hoeckle (Managing Director of HitchHiker).

“We fill several aircraft with passengers from our low cost bookings, amongst them EasyJet and RyanAir. This could be an indication as to why EasyJet has taken Interes to court, but not HitchHiker.", as Hoeckle states.

Parallel to these legal disputes, the entire issue has already made its way to Brussels in the meantime. As the responsible EU-commission is currently fully occupied and the urgency for this issue is not classified as being very high, we do not expect any results before the beginning of 2010. The process could in fact be sped up if customers would contact the EU-commission directly and push them to clarify the situation. All information and sample documents in order to do this are available at: info@hitchhiker.com.