Ryanair fined 8m euros by French court

Ryanair says it will appeal against the fine

A French court has fined Ryanair more than 8m euros (£6.7m) after ruling that it had broken local labour laws.

The court found Ryanair acted illegally when it employed more than 120 staff on Irish contracts at its former Marseille operating hub between 2007 and 2010.

The low-cost airline said it would appeal against the ruling.

Ryanair was ordered to pay a 200,000 euro fine, but the court denied a request to fine it the equivalent value of the four aircraft based at the hub.

However, the firm also has to pay 4.5m euros of backdated social charges, 3m euros in pension contributions, as well as 450,000 euros in unemployment charges.

Ryanair's Robin Kiely said the firm would be lodging an early appeal.

"Since all of our people operating to/from Marseille between 2007 and 2010 have already paid their social taxes and pension contributions in Ireland, in full compliance with Irish and EU employment regulations, we do not believe that either Ryanair or our people can be forced to double pay these contributions a second time in France," he said.

The company noted that if it was forced to pay the social taxes and pension contributions in France, it believed it could reclaim the vast majority of those costs from the Irish government.