Originally Posted by
irishguy28
That's not the issue here. It's not about cases that have made it to court.
Ryanair only ever sends the compensation directly to the passenger - never to a third party. This is not to do with court-ordered settlements; rather, customers who selected Bott & Co to prosecute the case for them, and who then received the compensation directly from Ryanair, often refuse to "pay" Bott & Co their "share". Bott & Co took Ryanair to court in order to force them to start paying the agent (where there is one) rather than always paying the customer directly.
For a recent experience with Ryanair compensation by the writer of Gulliver (Economist's travel blog), have a look
here.
It is not clear from the article where in the flow of things the claims in question were. Hence also the conditional part of my statement. I am fairly certain there are both immediate and court settlements in that.
I don't know how good or how bad Ryanair is compared to other airlines, but their business model has always been and still is to push the boundaries. So I am sure their quick and voluntary settlements are for crystal clear cases only. Which is not unfair, they should not pay unnecessary claims. But the means for passengers to push the grey zone cases are limited beyond these "chaser" companies.
As far as I know, the alternative arbitration is not legally binding. Correct me if I am wrong