Previous ECJ ruling C-487/12
I mentioned the above concept in my OP
It seems obviously to be even more important than this Spanish ruling, and it is used by the Spanish judge as part of her justification for finding against Ryanair.
The case she cites is as above, C-487/12 and is easily found on line
It concerns Vueling and their charging for checked baggage and the issue of whether this is an unfair extra.
The EU judges accept that charging for checked luggage is lawful under law 1008/2008 but rule clearly that charging for "reasonable" hand baggage is NOT
Here are the crucial sections (all added emphasis mine):
39 Having regard to those considerations, it must be held that the price to be paid for the carriage of air passengers’ checked-in baggage constitutes an optional price supplement, within the meaning of Article 23(1) of Regulation 1008/2008, given that such a service cannot be considered to be compulsory or necessary for the carriage of those passengers.
40 By contrast, as regards baggage that is not checked in, namely hand baggage, it must be observed, in order to give a complete response to the referring court, that such baggage must be considered, in principle, as constituting a necessary aspect of the carriage of passengers and that its carriage cannot, therefore, be made subject to a price supplement, on condition that such hand baggage meets reasonable requirements in terms of its weight and dimensions, and complies with applicable security requirements.
The case is dated Sept 2014 and so shows clearly that any airline failing to carry reasonable hand baggage for free is breaking EU law.
Over to you, Ryanair.
(Obviously, the next major case will be to determine whether some airline which sets especially strict limits on size and weight of hand baggage is being "reasonable")