Rail Europe is the global reference brand for booking European train travel, trusted by travelers and professionals worldwide. As a neutral aggregator, Rail Europe provides access to the widest range of train products across the continent. Their mission is to simplify complex journeys with a seamless digital platform and a customer-centric approach.

To protect its website from automated traffic, the company implemented DataDome before bots became an issue. And they haven’t looked back, with 30% of traffic blocked in real time, including scraping, credential stuffing, and vulnerability scans. For years, DataDome has provided Rail Europe with seamless protection and clarity, and the company considers the solution a strategic layer of protection.

“30% of incoming traffic is blocked by DataDome. Without protection, it would have a definite negative impact on our infrastructure, our sales funnels, and even our partners.”

A digital leader with a proactive security mindset

Rail Europe has been connecting travelers to the European rail network for 90 years. Its B2C website allows users to book directly with major carriers like SNCF, Eurostar, Trenitalia, DB, and many more. 

Of course, with a digital presence that spans continents, platforms, and partners, Rail Europe is a prime target for bot and cyberfraud attacks. Instead of scrambling to respond to bot attacks after the damage is done, Rail Europe did the opposite: they sought cyberfraud protection right away, before it became a larger problem for them.

“DataDome was already in place when I joined,” says Ilgün Ilgün, Chief Technology Officer at Rail Europe. “It wasn’t a reaction to an incident. It was a strategic decision to be prepared.”

Why they chose DataDome: Easy setup & smooth integration

One of the reasons for choosing DataDome in the first place was the simplicity of onboarding. Ilgün’s collaborators reported to him that the integration was straightforward: “The documentation was clear, and since we use Cloudflare, deployment was quick.”

Rail Europe’s security teams also appreciate the platform’s flexibility. With custom rules, they can quickly adapt protection to internal tools and specific partner needs without complex reconfiguration.

The results: 30% of traffic blocked & no disruptions 

Despite the lack of a dramatic “before and after” moment, the scale of what DataDome prevents is anything but insignificant.

“30% of incoming traffic is blocked by DataDome,” Ilgün shares. “This is mainly scraping, but also credential stuffing and vulnerability scanning. Without protection, it would have a definite negative impact on our infrastructure, our sales funnels, and even our partners.”

Because Rail Europe connects directly to the railway companies’ systems, high volumes of invalid traffic could compromise key relationships, or lead to access restrictions. But that has never happened, as the company can count on real time, AI-driven bot protection.

“Carriers expect clean traffic. If we were sending garbage volume, it would hurt our credibility. With DataDome, we can confidently say we’re keeping things clean,” Ilgün says.

Scraper bots often target travel booking websites and inventories. If left unchecked, they can drive up infrastructure costs and increase latency, damaging both customer trust and performance.

Despite blocking nearly a third of all requests, DataDome has no noticeable impact on Rail Europe’s genuine user experience. “We haven’t experienced any latency issues, which is really the best-case scenario,” says Ilgün.

DataDome simply runs quietly in the background, allowing Ilgün’s teams to feel safe and secure. They also appreciate the visibility the platform provides into their traffic. 

A strong partnership with room to grow

From the very beginning, the relationship between DataDome and Rail Europe has been smooth sailing. According to the application security and corporate security teams, “Support is always responsive when we need to improve detection or adapt to new threats.” 

In the future, Rail Europe is open to exploring other features of the DataDome platform, such as additional app integrations, as needs evolve.

“I haven’t explored all the features yet, but I definitely plan to. We’re happy with the protection we’re getting, and we trust the platform,” concludes Ilgün.

Rail Europe discovered that 30% of their traffic was malicious—and that’s after deploying DataDome. If you haven’t checked your own exposure, now’s the time. 

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