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Irish Independent
21-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Lobby group weighs in against Ryanair in US legal battle
The lobby group has claimed that Ryanair is attempting to stymie competition by taking on Ryanair sued the website in 2020 in Delaware, alleging that it was screen-scraping the airline's fares without permission. Screen-scraping involves accessing an airline's ticket prices and flight data, and then selling tickets for those flights through a third-party website. After a four-day trial last July, a jury in Delaware convicted of having caused economic harm to Ryanair. The jury awarded the Irish airline just $5,000 (€4,293) – the minimum threshold required to state a claim under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). However, the district court judge who heard the case then agreed with that Ryanair had not met the requirement of proving that at least $5,000 of loss was attributable to which is a prerequisite to any finding of civil liability under the CFAA. Accordingly, the judge overturned the ruling. Ryanair has now appealed against that decision, seeking to have the judge's decision reversed, or to have a new trial. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has weighed in behind The lobby group's founders were US author and lyricist John Barlow and entrepreneur Mitch Kapor. Its backers also included Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. It has argued that the continued reliance on the CFAA by companies to take legal actions could stymie competition. 'If unauthorised access can be predicated on a violation of a website owner's stated preferences, rather than hacking technological barriers, then companies will continue to use the CFAA to fend off competition,' the lobby group has claimed in its submission to the US Court of Appeals. 'For example, companies commonly use automated web browsing products to gather web data for a wide variety of uses.' Those practices include manufacturers tracking performance ranking of products in the search results of retailer websites, or monitoring posts on social media, it points out. Inhibiting competition is precisely what Ryanair sought to do here 'If the use of valid credentials in a way that has been disallowed as a matter of stated – or even unstated – policy were a CFAA violation, a company could create a password-protected 'gate', make the key freely available to all, and then send cease-and-desist letters to anyone they don't like,' Electronic Frontier Foundation said in its submission. 'This concern is not speculative. Inhibiting competition is precisely what Ryanair sought to do here, and in keeping with what companies have repeatedly tried to do in the past, with partial success.' Ryanair has already claimed that the travel firm has 'escaped liability' after the Delaware judge overturned the jury's verdict. 'The court impermissibly usurped the role of the jury as the ultimate finder of fact when it found that no reasonable jury could conclude that Ryanair's costs due to Booking's conduct from March 1, 2022, to February 28, 2023 would have exceeded $5,000,' it has claimed.
BBC News
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Diogo Jota death prompts outpouring of grief from Liverpool fans
Thousands of football fans have made their way to Anfield stadium to pay their respects to the Liverpool forward Diogo Jota after his death in a car crash in 28, was killed when a Lamborghini he was travelling in with his younger brother, Andre Silva, suffered a tyre blow-out, crashed and caught fire in Cernadilla in the Zamora province. Both men died in the crash, which happened at about 00:300 local time, Spanish police told the BBC.A sea of flowers, football shirts, scarves, balloons and flags have been laid outside Liverpool's ground by fans since news of his death broke. Lifelong fan John Barlow from Leyland in Lancashire, a survivor of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, said he was "absolutely devastated" when the news broke. Mr Barrow said: "I had to stop what I'm doing at work and drive in."I come every match and he was like one of us. He had a bit of something about him, like a proper old Liverpool player, like the players we were brought up with."He had a fight in him and he came back from things and he was tough."He said he was "just heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken". 'We will miss you so much': Klopp leads tributes to Diogo Jota after he dies in car crash Andrea Molyneux, who went to the stadium with herdaughters Isabella and Lily Costello, described their "utter devastation". "I can't even comprehend the grief that the family are going through," Ms Molyneux said."He was just such a young man and life can be taken away from you in such a short time. "He had everything. Everything."The Portugal international had recently married his partner, Rute Cardoso, with whom he had three young children. Another fan told the BBC he would remember Jota with "a smile on his face, scoring goals for Liverpool". "But in a time like this, football pales into insignificance," he added. "He's left a wife and three children behind, his brother's passed away with him and his poor parents have lost two children. "I mean, he'll forever be remembered as a great Red for us. But when something like this happens, football doesn't matter anymore." Writing on social media, former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who was in charge at Anfield when Jota was signed from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020, said he was heartbroken."This is a moment where I struggle!" he wrote."There must be a bigger purpose, but I can't see it."Earlier Liverpool FC said it was "devastated" by the loss of the player and his brother. The club described the player's death as "an unimaginable loss". Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
CBC
03-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Is another 'grand bargain' necessary to build another pipeline?
Social Sharing At question period on Monday, two Conservative MPs beseeched the government to approve a pipeline that very afternoon. "The prime minister is meeting with premiers in Saskatchewan today," said John Barlow, MP for the Alberta riding of Foothills. "Will he approve a pipeline at that meeting?" Such a request raises other questions. Questions like, what pipeline? To where? To be built by whom? And under what conditions? Whatever the stated desire for a new pipeline to transport oil out of Alberta, there is no actual proposal for a pipeline on the table to approve. But it also bears noting that the meeting in Saskatoon on Monday was not about pipelines, per se. The first ministers were meeting to discuss "nation-building" infrastructure projects. And there are many kinds of projects that might qualify as nation-building — infrastructure like ports and railways and public transit and electricity transmission lines. But while no pipeline was approved on Monday, at least the notion of a pipeline was referenced approvingly in the official communique that the prime minister and premiers released at the conclusion of their discussions. In writing, the first ministers agreed that, "Canada must work urgently to get Canadian natural resources and commodities to domestic and international markets, such as critical minerals and decarbonized Canadian oil and gas by pipelines, supported by the private sector, that provide access to diversified global markets, including Asia and Europe." That only leaves all of the other aforementioned questions to answer. So you want to build a pipeline When asked by a reporter on Monday to explain the federal government's disposition toward a pipeline, Carney suggested there was general agreement between the western and territorial premiers for a "corridor" that would run from the Pacific northwest to Grays Bay in Nunavut. "Within that," he said, were "opportunities" for a pipeline that would carry "decarbonized" oil to new markets. "If further developed, the federal government will look to advance that," he said. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith went further to suggest there was a "grand bargain" to be made. Expanded pipeline capacity, she said, would be a boost to the Pathways Alliance, a consortium of major oil companies that have spent the past few years loudly insisting that they are very eager to move forward with a large carbon capture project (just as soon as they can get enough public funding to do so). But if the notion of a "grand bargain" on oil and climate policy sounds familiar, it might be because that's what Justin Trudeau once proposed — and seemed even to have struck, at least for a little while. Carney says there is 'real potential' for pipeline after first ministers' meeting 23 hours ago Duration 1:58 Trudeau came to office insisting that pipelines could only be built by winning "social license." And in Trudeau's version of a grand bargain, serious climate policy — including a price on carbon — would be paired with a new pipeline to the West Coast. The Liberal government then went so far as to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion project (TMX) to ensure a new pipeline was built. On some levels Trudeau succeeded. While burning some of his own political capital, public support for TMX increased, the project was completed and national climate policy was meaningfully strengthened during his time as prime minister. But Trudeau still left office with Smith and other Conservatives portraying him as an anti-oil zealot, a climate radical and a threat to national unity. Meanwhile, support for Trudeau's consumer carbon tax eroded so much that Carney was more or less compelled to abandon it. The threats posed by Donald Trump may have now created new arguments for building a pipeline — including economic sovereignty and trade diversification. But simply removing Trudeau from the equation doesn't make a new pipeline a perfectly easy or obvious thing to build. Conservatives have portrayed Trudeau — and Liberal legislation like the Impact Assessment Act, otherwise known as C-69 — as the primary obstacle to further pipeline construction in Canada. But the pre-Trudeau world was hardly enthusiastic about pipelines, whatever the previous Conservative government's stated support for the oil and gas industry. When that Conservative government approved the Northern Gateway proposal in 2014, it attached 209 conditions. In the words of a government spokesman at the time, the answer from Stephen Harper's Conservatives wasn't "yes," it was " maybe." The provincial government in British Columbia had its own demands and a majority of British Columbians were opposed. (The federal approval was then overturned by the courts because of a lack of consultation with Indigenous groups.) What would a real grand bargain look like? As reporters continued to press about the possibility of a pipeline on Monday, Carney lamented that "sometimes the discussion is reduced far too much to one type of project," but he also associated himself with Smith's talk of a "grand bargain." For now, no private investor is currently proposing to build the sort of pipeline that Smith envisions. Smith thinks one will come forward, which at least sets up a test of how much enthusiasm for a pipeline actually exists outside the political world. WATCH | Alberta premier's take on first ministers' meeting: Hearing PM talk about northwestern pipeline 'very encouraging': Alberta premier | Power & Politics 22 hours ago Duration 8:37 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tells Power & Politics she found Prime Minister Mark Carney's comments on a possible northwestern pipeline 'very encouraging' and a 'sea change' from where first ministers' discussions on energy projects were six months ago. Assuming a proponent is found, the notion of a "grand bargain" might at least hold out hope for real progress on climate policy and reducing Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. But in a letter to Carney in May, Smith called on the federal government to repeal a cap on oil and gas emissions, eliminate the federal system for pricing industrial emissions and withdraw clean electricity regulations. She also opposes the federal government's zero-emission vehicle sales targets and ban on single-use plastics. At the very least, a massive retreat on federal climate policy is unlikely to increase public support for a new pipeline. The notion of "decarbonized oil" is a contradiction in terms. But it could be possible, at some cost, to significantly reduce the emissions associated with the production of oil. And it might even behoove the federal government to help (as it already has, including the Trudeau government's commitment of billions toward a new investment tax credit for carbon capture, utilization and storage). But as Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist at the University of Alberta, noted in his book Between Doom and Denial, the first promise of government and industry working together in Alberta to pursue carbon capture technology was made in 1994. That year, in situ oil sands development produced 4.6 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2023, annual emissions from in situ development were 47.1 megatonnes. Total national emissions from the oil and gas industry accounted for 30 per cent of Canada's total in 2023 — up from 22 per cent in 1994. If an ambitious prime minister was looking for nation-building projects to rally the country around, decarbonizing the Canadian economy would certainly qualify. But if another grand bargain on climate and oil policy is to be part of that, Carney might hope to negotiate something much more enduring than the last one.
