Booking.com's price curbs on hotels may hinder competition, EU top court says
Adds Booking Holdings comment in paragraphs 11-12
By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, Sept 19 (Reuters) -Booking.com's restrictions against hotels offering lower rates on their websites or on rival sites are unnecessary and could reduce competition, Europe's top court said on Thursday in a ruling targeting a widely used industry practice.
The court also said, however, they were not anti-competitive under European Union (EU) law.
Known as parity clauses and inserted into contracts between online booking sites and hotels, the practice has triggered complaints by competitors and scrutiny from regulators across Europe concerned about fewer choices for consumers.
Germany's antitrust watchdog has banned such clauses whether they apply to hotels' websites or rival accommodation sites while regulators for the EU as a whole allow such curbs only for hotels' own sites.
Landmark rules known as the Digital Markets Act that came into force last year ban large online platforms, which would include Booking.com, from using wide or narrow retail parity clauses or equivalent commercial measures.
The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said there was no evidence to justify them.
"It has not been established that price parity clauses, whether wide or narrow, first, are objectively necessary for the implementation of that main operation and, second, are proportionate to the objective pursued by it," judges said.
They said the restrictions may reduce competition between various hotel reservation platforms, force out small platforms and new entrants and do not appear to be necessary to ensure Booking.com's economic viability.
However the court also said that the clauses cannot be considered anti-competitive under EU antitrust laws.
"Price parity clauses cannot, in principle, be classified as 'ancillary restraints' for the purposes of EU competition law," the CJEU said.
Booking Holdings expressed disappointment with the ruling.
"We maintain that parity clauses that historically existed in Germany were necessary and proportionate to the relationship between accommodation partners and Booking.com and that Booking.com operates in a competitive market," the company said.
The case involving the unit of New York-listed Booking Holdings BKNG.O came after the company applied for a declaration on whether parity clauses are valid, prompting a Dutch court to seek guidance from the CJEU.
The case is C-264/23 Booking.com and Booking.com (Deutschland).
Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Barbara Lewis and Jane Merriman
Berita Terkini
Penafian: Entiti XM Group menyediakan perkhidmatan pelaksanaan sahaja dan akses ke Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian, yang membolehkan sesorang melihat dan/atau menggunakan kandungan yang ada di dalam atau melalui laman web, tidak bertujuan untuk mengubah atau memperluas, juga tidak mengubah atau mengembangkannya. Akses dan penggunaan tersebut tertakluk kepada: (i) Terma dan Syarat; (ii) Amaran Risiko; dan Penafian Penuh. Oleh itu, kandungan sedemikian disediakan tidak lebih dari sekadar maklumat umum. Terutamanya, perlu diketahui bahawa kandungan Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian bukan permintaan, atau tawaran untuk melakukan transaksi dalam pasaran kewangan. Berdagang dalam mana-mana pasaran kewangan melibatkan tahap risiko yang besar terhadap modal anda.
Semua bahan yang diterbitkan di Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian kami bertujuan hanya untuk tujuan pendidikan/maklumat dan tidak mengandungi – dan tidak boleh dianggap mengandungi nasihat kewangan, cukai pelaburan atau dagangan dan cadangan, atau rekod harga dagangan kami, atau tawaran, atau permintaan untuk suatu transaksi dalam sebarang instrumen kewangan atau promosi kewangan yang tidak diminta kepada anda.
Sebarang kandungan pihak ketiga serta kandungan yang disediakan oleh XM, seperti pendapat, berita, penyelidikan, analisis, harga, maklumat lain atau pautan ke laman web pihak ketiga yang terdapat dalam laman web ini disediakan berdasarkan "seadanya" sebagai ulasan pasaran umum dan bukanlah nasihat pelaburan. Sesuai dengan apa-apa kandungan yang ditafsir sebagai penyelidikan pelaburan, anda mestilah ambil perhatian dan menerima bahawa kandungan tersebut tidak bertujuan dan tidak sediakan berdasarkan keperluan undang-undang yang direka untuk mempromosikan penyelidikan pelaburan bebas dan oleh itu, ia dianggap sebagai komunikasi pemasaran di bawah peraturan dan undang-undang yang berkaitan. SIla pastikan bahawa anda telah membaca dan memahami Notifikasi mengenai Penyelidikan Pelaburan Bukan Bebas dan Amaran Risiko mengenai maklumat di atas yang boleh diakses di sini.
