EU court says that Booking.com was wrong to put price limitations on hotels

The highest European Court issued criticism on Thursday about the price rules that Booking.com forced hotel owners to follow. Earlier, the owners were not allowed to offer lower prices on their own website or a different booking site than on Booking.com. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has now decided that Booking.com was not allowed to do this in accordance with European Union laws.

The Court looked at the case after questions were submitted by an Amsterdam court about whether Booking.com was allowed to enforce these price rules with regard to European laws. The booking platform felt that this was allowed, but the CJEU ruled that Booking.com was not allowed to impose these "additional restrictions" under competition law.

According to the European Court, the rules are not "objectively necessary" for carrying out the main activities of the booking site or are unnecessarily restrictive to Booking.com's goals.

Booking.com said that it will respond to the verdict at a later date. According to a spokesperson, the price rules were dropped in the Netherlands and other EU countries on July 1 in accordance with European law. This means that hotel owners can offer lower prices via their website or platforms other than Booking.com.

In addition, the CJEU reported that price rules can generally lead to less competition and crowding out of small platforms and newcomers. The Court emphasized that platforms like Booking.com do not in themselves negatively affect competition. These platforms give consumers easy access to many accommodations and allow them to compare them quickly. The Court reasoned that the platform makes the providers more easily discoverable.

Booking.com is disappointed with the verdict and will continue to analyze the full content, a Booking.com spokesperson said.

Spanish competition regulator CNMC fined Booking.com's parent company 413 million euros in July for abusing their dominant position in the market. The fine was lower than the proposed fine of 490 million euros that the regulator had announced in February.The regulator had been investigating the company for a while because they suspected unfair practices towards some hotels and travel organizations in the country.

Booking.com has announced that it would appeal against the punishment.