Families flying with Ryanair will no longer have to pay to guarantee they are sitting next to their children after the airline on Thursday changed its rules with immediate effect.Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation earlier this month over whether the airline’s requirement for at least one parent to sit with their children and then billing them to do so was an unfair contract term under consumer law. The airline said on Thursday that, with immediate effect, adults travelling with children can opt not to select or pay for a specific seat in advance. Instead, on check-in, they will be notified of a seat allocation that accommodates them beside each other.The change, which Ryanair described as “a minor policy tweak”, means families travelling abroad for summer holidays will not be forced to pay for a seat just to ensure they sit beside their young children. The move brings Ryanair into line with other EU airlines.“We will reluctantly adjust to this industry standard as we don’t want to waste time explaining to misguided regulators how badly they misunderstand what is in the best interest of UK and Europe’s consumers,” Ryanair group chief executive, Michael O’Leary said.“Under our revised family seating policy, families may have to wait until after they have checked in to find out their seat allocation and are more likely to be seated at the rear of the cabin but at least the CMA will be able to claim they have done something for consumers, but sadly most consumers won’t notice.”Ryanair said the reason families opting for random seating would be placed further back in the aircraft was that rows further up the plane tend to be reserved and sell out first.The airline accused the UK regulator of a “desire... to stifle innovation and progress”. It said the change in policy would be revenue-neutral for the airline.[ Ryanair investigated over charging parents to sit with their childrenOpens in new window ]“Instead of promoting competitiveness and lower fares for consumers, the CMA is on a mission to force Ryanair to adopt the less transparent and less consumer-friendly family seating policy applied by most other airlines – just because it’s the industry standard,” Mr O’Leary said.It insisted that the previous “long-standing” family seating policy challenged by the regulator “fully complies with all relevant laws and regulations”.