Originally Posted by
Railbob
This might not be correct but apparently the customers claimed a chargeback on flights that they declined to take due to FCO advice but the Ryanair flights actually operated. To Ryanair these customers were "No Shows" and were not entitled to a refund, the customers should have gone to their travel insurance supplier and claimed on that but they went straight to the card supplier for a chargeback. If this is true and it's a big if ? then the customers have fraudulently instigated a chargeback as Ryanair supplied the service for which they were contracted but the customer declined to use.
While fraudulently is a very strong word here (there's no fraud if the customers told the bank they could not fly due to COVID restrictions and the bank incorrectly issued the chargeback), correct courses of action could be to work with the banks to reverse it (or claim compensation from the bank), or contact the people involved and say they are banned from the airline until it is settled, with any future tickets refunded.
Waiting until after another purchase has been made and to the point where the customer would face undue hardship having to repurchase tickets at the last minute is unethical, and potentially illegal if no refund of that ticket is offered given the customer made the payment in exchange for the new ticket and Ryanair has no court ruling stating there is a debt to collect.
The customers thought the ordeal was settled, and then Ryanair waited until the customer needed to rely on them to bring it up again and force a payment.