Spain’s antitrust agency has fined online booking giant Booking.com €413.2 million ($448 million) for abusing its dominant position in the country over the past five years.
The regulator, CNMC, said in a statement today (30.07.2024) that it has imposed two fines of €206.6 million on Booking.com, part of New York Stock Exchange-listed Booking Holdings (BKNG.O), for taking advantage of its 70% to 90% market share since 2019 to impose unfair terms on hotels and restrict competition from other online booking service providers.
Booking Holdings intends to appeal the fines as it strongly disagrees with the “outcome of the CNMC investigation”, a spokesman for the company said in an email, adding that it believes “the matter should be discussed under the rules of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act”.
The group can appeal the fines to Spain’s Supreme Court, according to CNMC.
The proceedings arose from two complaints filed by the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers (AEDH) and the Madrid Hotel Association in 2021.
The CNMC said the booking site prohibits hotels from offering lower prices on their own websites than on Booking.com, and unilaterally imposes price discounts on rooms without consulting the hotels.
“Booking.com also forces Spanish hotels to file a lawsuit in the Netherlands in case of a dispute,” CNMC said.
To maintain its high market share, Booking.com offers benefits to hotels that earn it higher fees, limiting the ability of alternative service providers to convince hotels to do business with them.
It is recalled that since 2022 the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels has appealed to the Greek Competition Commission, which has been investigating Booking’s practices ever since (!!!). So far, according to the available information, almost two years later, some questionnaires have been sent to hotels regarding the terms of cooperation with Booking. At the same time, in European countries the competition authorities are directly and effectively controlling the multinational and imposing appropriate penalties.
