United Airlines Accuses Popular Travel Site Kiwi.com Of Extortion In Explosive New Lawsuit
- United Airlines claims consumers are being deceived into buying flights through the popular online travel site Kiwi.com which sometimes charges more than if passengers bought direct through United. Now the airline is suing to stop Kiwi.com.
United Airlines is suing a notorious online travel agent that looks and feels like trusted brands such as Expedia, but which is allegedly selling flights to consumers with higher fares and ancillary fees than consumers would be charged if they booked directly with United.
According to a recently filed lawsuit in a Chicago district court, United tried to get the online platform to stop illegally selling its flights and even served the company with a cease and desist letter in a last-ditch effort to avoid litigation.
Kiwi “unlawfully trades on United’s stellar worldwide reputation and goodwill, disrupts its operations, and systematically deceives consumers—all while masquerading as a legitimate business.”
United’s lawsuit against Kiwi.com
In response, the Czech-based retailer Kiwi.com tried to extort United by offering to charge consumers the correct price if United entered into a commercial agreement with it.
Kiwi.com was previously sued by American Airlines in 2023 over very similar allegations, but the Fort Worth-based carrier eventually dropped its lawsuit last February after coming to a secret deal with the company.
United Airlines once had an official agreement with Kiwi.com, allowing the platform to market and sell its flights, but this was terminated in late 2023 when United says it became aware of “deceptive and harmful practices” that the online travel agent was employing.
Rather than removing United’s flights from its website, however, United’s army of lawyers claim that Kiwi.com found other ways to illegally access the airline’s flight inventory.
Kiwi is “cheating consumers by charging exorbitant fees for ancillary products and services that United provides at a lower price or, in some instances, for no charge at all.”
United’s lawsuit against Kiwi.com
Without access to United’s live flight inventory, Kiwi.com is accused of ‘scraping’ the airline’s website to present flight details to consumers in a way that they could be mistaken for thinking that a proper relationship existed between Kiwi and United.
Kiwi.com then hid what it was doing by using fake email addresses to book flights via the United website.
The travel agency promised consumers that it could offer them the very best deals with its heavily promoted ‘travel hacks,’ although it turns out that these hacks broke United’s terms and conditions of travel.
One of these hacks was the so-called ‘hidden city ticketing’ trick in which someone buys a ticket to a destination that involves a stopover. The intention, however, is to end your journey at the stopover destination.
“United does not want to do business with Kiwi, and Kiwi cannot use unlawful conduct to bully United into a commercial agreement.”
United’s lawsuit against Kiwi.com
Because of how airline inventory is sold, buying a direct flight to your destination is often more expensive than buying a connecting flight and simply discarding the final segment.
Airlines, however, hate this practice and have explicitly banned hidden city ticketing in their terms and conditions.
Kiwi.com also allegedly sold ancillary services to consumers, such as baggage fees, at a higher markup than what United was charging on its own website. In some cases, Kiwi.com would charge consumers for baggage but then never book the service with United.
United found an example in which Kiwi.com was charging $194.99 for a single checked bag, while the site wanted consumers to pay more than $454 for two checked bags.
In contrast, United was only charging $75 for one checked bag and $175 for two checked bags for the same flight.
When United met with Kiwi.com in October 2024 to demand that it stop illegally marketing and selling its flights, the company was accused of attempting to extort the airline by agreeing only to stop scraping its website if United entered into a commercial agreement.
United then sent a cease and desist letter, but Kiwi.com refused to comply, arguing that the dispute was simply a misunderstanding.
While American Airlines eventually reached a deal with Kiwi.com, the company didn’t succeed in negotiating a solution with Southwest Airlines. In 2021, the carrier sued Kiwi.com and won a permanent injunction banning the company from marketing its flights on its website.
Kiwi.com has also faced legal action in Europe, including from Ryanair, which secured a court order to stop the company from replacing genuine customer contact information with fictitious email addresses.
Last year, Ryanair reached a deal with Kiwi.com, allowing the site to sell its flights.
United is suing Kiwi.com for breach of contract, trademark infringement, and false advertising, among a slew of other allegations. The airline has asked for permanent injunctive relief, stopping Kiwi.com from marketing or selling United’s flights on its website.
Kiwi.com’s History of Airline Lawsuits
United Airlines is not the first carrier to have sued Kiwi.com, accusing the online travel agency of using screen scraping technology to obtain flight details from its website in the absence of a proper commercial agreement.
2021: Southwest Airlines sued Kiwi.com and successfully secured a permanent injunction banning the company from selling its flights.
2021: Ryanair secured court orders against Kiwi.com for providing fake customer email addresses, but the airline reached a deal with the travel agency last year.
2023: American Airlines sued Kiwi.com, accusing it of screen scraping and selling ‘hidden city’ tickets. The airline reached a secret deal with Kiwi.com the following year.
