The Spanish competition authority announced on Monday that it has opened an investigation against the website Booking.com, a global giant for hotel reservations on the Internet, for possible “anti-competitive practices” that affect hotels and travel agencies.
This investigation refers to commercial conditions “susceptible of constituting an abuse of a dominant position” in the hotel reservation market, the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) announced in a press release.
It derives from two complaints filed by the Association of Hotel Companies of Madrid (AEHM) and by the Spanish Association of Hotel Directors (AEDH), which accused the reservation website of having imposed unfair conditions on Spanish hotels, he added.
multiple procedures
According to the competition authority, these conditions are likely to create “a situation of economic dependence” for the hotels in question, with “exclusionary effects” for certain travel agencies and certain “online sales channels”.
These practices, by extension, may constitute “acts of unfair competition harmful to the public interest, due to the distortion of free competition that they have induced”, the CNMC insists in its press release.
The CNMC specifies that it now has a maximum period of 18 months to carry out its investigation and make a final decision.
Booking.com, created in 1996 and headquartered in the Netherlands, has in recent years been the subject of several “unfair competition” proceedings brought by hotel associations, particularly in the European Union.
Faced with these multiple procedures, the online booking giant had to review its business strategy several years ago, allowing establishments to offer more advantageous rates at reception or by phone.
Source: BFM TV
