A federal judge in Dallas, Texas has permanently barred defendants Kiwi.com Inc. and Kiwi.com S.R.O. from scraping and harvesting information from Southwest’s website, republishing the airline’s flight and fare schedules, and selling Southwest flights without permission. Tuesday’s final judgment in Southwest Airlines Co.’s case against the online travel agency comes after Kiwi.com appealed an earlier-issued preliminary injunction and after the parties reached a settlement.
Southwest’s lawsuit claimed that Kiwi.com violated the airline’s terms of use by scraping flight data from its pages for commercial usage. Specifically, Kiwi purchased tickets directly from Southwest’s website and then resold increased-fare flights to more than 170,000 customers, the filing said. The suit stated claims for violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the Texas computer crime statute, and for breach of contract and trademark infringement.
In late September, the court entered a preliminary injunction against Kiwi.com, which it appealed. Several months later, Southwest apprised the court of the parties’ settlement, the terms of which were not disclosed, in an unopposed motion to stay pending deadlines.
This week’s final judgment comes in response to a second unopposed motion filed by Southwest asking for entry of the permanent injunction. The order reiterates findings made in the court’s earlier injunctive relief opinion, including that the online travel agent agreed to Southwest’s terms of service then violated those terms.
In addition, the court found that Kiwi.com’s violation caused the airline to suffer harm including “lost traffic on its website, customer service burdens, operational disruptions, and reputational damage.” Finally, the court recounted its conclusion that granting an injunction would serve the public’s interest in parties honoring their contractual obligations.
On January 3, Kiwi.com dismissed its Fifth Circuit appeal.
Southwest is represented by Munck Wilson Mandala LLP and Kiwi.com by McCarthy Garber Law LLC, Carrington Coleman Sloman & Blumenthal LLP, and Bates PLLC.
