Italy's antitrust authority said Wednesday that it had opened a probe into Ryanair for possible abuse of its dominant market position.
It said the probe regarded reports it received from May onward over the airline's alleged attempts to "extend its market power" by offering additional services, such as hotel and car-hire bookings.
The authority said it was looking into whether Ryanair was harming travel agencies - both online and offline ones - and consumers by doing so.
It said Ryanair seems to hamper the acquisition of air tickets by travel agents directly from its site, while allowing traditional agencies to buy them via the GDS platform, but under less favourable conditions.
It emerged on Tuesday that Premier Giorgia Meloni's government has reconsidered controversial new rules concerning air fares on certain domestic routes.
In an amendment to the so-called Asset decree currently before parliament for conversion into law, the executive has eliminated the price cap on tickets of 200% of the average fare and given the Italian antitrust authority powers to verify possible abuses.
"The conduct exercised (by airlines) on the routes to the islands, the period of peak seasonal demand, and prices that are more than 200% above the average fare are considered circumstances and indications that the Authority can take into account," reads the technical report.
In a letter to the European Commission trade body Airlines for Europe (A4E) contested the price cap, arguing that it could "set a precedent and lead to a domino effect" as well as "violating" the rights of companies to '"compete wherever possible, set prices and define services as they see fit".
Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson also blasted the measure, describing it as "ridiculous, illegal and interfering with the free market, according to European law" and later announcing a 8% reduction in the air line's services to and from the Italian island region of Sardinia this winter as a direct result.
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