Expedia.co.uk don't accept online bookings from Ireland

[bb12]

I was trying to book flights online at expedia.co.uk for some inter-US flights but when it came to actually buying them with my credit card, Ireland was not in the drop down list of countries with acceptable billing addresses. I had tried earlier with their US counterpart expedia.com with the same results.

I wrote to them and this is what they replied with :

Thank you for your enquiry concerning the
> restriction to complete bookings on the
> Expedia.co.uk site when using an originating address
> within the Republic of Ireland.
>
> Due to restricting Irish regulations relating to the
> offering of travel products in and out of the
> Republic of Ireland, we currently do not accept
> bookings from customers with a booking address
> within the Irish Republic. Work is in progress to
> rectify this situation but in the meantime we regret
> that we are unable to process your booking at this
> time.

Is this allowed? Considering it's a UK site and we're all in the EU, surely this would contravene some trade agreement or other?

 

[ClubMan]

Perhaps they are not licensed/bonded in Ireland and consequently cannot legitimately sell travel products/packages/flights? See :

Commission for Aviation Regulation

The Commission for Aviation Regulation is responsible for setting the maximum level of airport and aviation terminal services charges and also has an important role in licensing the travel trade in Ireland. It grants licences to both tour operators and travel agents. As part of this function, the Commission administers a bonding scheme. The Commission also licenses Irish airlines, approves groundhandling services providers under regulations implementing EU legislation and assesses capacity at Irish airports and decides the manner in which take-off and landing slots are administered.