The airline has reported the travel agent to the Office for Fair Trading, The Civil Aviation Authority and consumer group, Which? after it became concerned that hundreds of thousands of UK consumers are paying more than they need to for easyJet flights.

easyJet said eDreams ‘dupes consumers into paying more by illegally advertising headline prices which are lower than the final price’.

The airline also said the travel website charges both a service fee and payment fee later on in the booking process, meaning advertised prices are ‘unachievable’.

Peter Duffy, marketing director of easyJet said: “The activity of eDreams means that we estimate around one million easyJet passengers are being duped into paying too much.

“The eDreams website has no authorisation to ‘screen scrape’ in order to sell easyJet flights and the way they present their prices is wrong and misleads consumers.”

easyJet itself has been accused in the past by consumer watchdogs of using advertising tactics which mislead the consumer with added debit and credit card fees and baggage fees.

Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which? said: “Companies must comply with the ban on excessive card charges that came in after our campaign, and shouldn’t be misleading consumers by adding on charges late in the booking process. Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading should crack down on any company found to be breaching these laws.”