Thu, 30 Oct 2014 Ryanair has lost its appeal against an €8m (£6.4m) fine imposed by French authorities for breaching French employment laws regarding non-payment of social insurance and state pension contributions.

The no-frills airline, which appealed the original judgement last October, was told by French prosecutors that by employing local staff from Marseille on Irish contracts it was only paying 10.75% in Irish charges instead of the 45% in social charges required in France.

The court ruled that the airline’s actions represented unfair competition against other airlines that respect national legislation.

Rival carrier Easyjet has already been issued with fines of more than €1m for the same offence.

Lawyers for Ryanair insisted that their crews in Marseille worked for an airline with a registered office in Ireland, and pointed out that they spent their working day on Irish-registered planes.

The airline said in a statement: “Ryanair crews were correctly working under Irish labour contracts and paid Irish social insurance in accordance with the applicable European employment and social security laws.”