DUBLIN, July 19 (Reuters) - A U.S. court ruled that

Booking.com violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by

accessing part of Ryanair's website without permission, court

documents showed, a ruling the airline said would help end

unauthorised screen scraping by booking sites.

The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers,

has in recent years launched a series of legal actions against

third-party booking platforms that resell its tickets without

permission.

It says the companies, which use screen-scraping software to

find and resell tickets, add additional charges and make it

difficult for the airline to contact passengers.

A jury in the District Court of Delaware unanimously found

that Booking.com violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse act and

that it had induced a third party to access parts of Ryanair's

website without authorization "with an intent to defraud," the

verdict issued late on Thursday said.

The court also rejected counterclaims by Booking.com that

Ryanair had defamed the booking platform and that the airline

was engaged in unfair competition.

"We expect that this ruling will end the internet piracy and

overcharging perpetrated on both airlines and other travel

companies and consumers by the unlawful activity of OTA (online

travel agent) Pirates," Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary

said in a statement.

He said he hoped the ruling would force consumer agencies

across Britain and Europe to take action to outlaw illegal

screen scraping and overcharging of consumers for flights and

ancillary services.

Ryanair has in recent months signed deals with a number of

online travel agents for the authorised resale of the airline's

tickets.

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Susan Fenton)