How have UK, EU and US watchdogs judged hidden booking sites and same-price rules?

"The OFT (now CMA) also investigated the online hotel booking sector between 2010 and 2014, though its case focussed not on OTA parity clauses but on restrictions on the ability of OTAs to offer discounted room prices."

"Article 133 of the Loi Macron renders null and void all OTA price parity clauses, but this provision relies on private enforcement."

"in Austria, in November 2016, all OTA parity clauses were rendered null and void by an amendment to the law on unfair competition."

"The German Bundeskartellamt's decision prohibiting HRS's parity clause was adopted in December 2013."

"Members of Booking.com's voluntary preferred partner programme must give Booking.com narrow parity, even though the Loi Macron has rendered parity obligations in contracts between OTAs and hotels null and void."

"On 20 August 2020, the CMA issued an update in its project monitoring the pricing practices of online travel agents, following the expiry of commitmen..."

"the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided not to prioritise further investigation on the application of competition law to pricing practices in this sector at this stage."

"The CMA took part in the monitoring work, along with 9 other national competition agencies and the European Commission."

"the project assessed whether the Europe-wide removal, in July 2015, by online travel agents (OTAs) Expedia and Booking.com of certain ‘parity’ or ‘most-favoured-nation’ clauses in their standard contracts with hotels has affected pricing and commission rates in the sector."

"one of the key findings in the ECN report is that many hotels are not aware that Booking.com and Expedia no longer enforce ‘wide’ parity clauses or of what this means for hotels’ ability to differentiate their prices across OTAs."

"The Commission shares the concern that third-party search ads and webpages that are not sufficiently transparent about the marketer’s identity could mislead consumers seeking to book a hotel roo m directly from an advertised hotel."

"Additionally, consumers who believe they are booking their hotel room directly from the advertised hotel rather than from a reseller may take away from the reseller’s representations or omissions that important terms and conditions, such as payment or cancellation requirements, are the same as if they booked their rooms directly from the hotels."

"In an analogous fact pattern, the FTC entered into settlements with online ticket resellers for allegedly misrepresenting that they were official entertainment venues offering tickets at face value. These companies designed search engine advertisements and corresponding websites that used names and URLs mimicking genuine venue names, combined with other words, phrases, and depictions, to make it a"

"The Commission recommended, however, that the bill be modified to ensure that it did not impose undue burdens on legitimate businesses or unintentionally exclude the types of sites it was intended to cover. The Commission noted that mainstream third-party travel agencies generally did not generate the kind of deception addressed by the bill; therefore, it recommended that, rather than requiring al"

"From recent investigations by several Member States on online travel agencies (OTAs) there emerges a general view in the EU that agreements including MFN clauses in their wide form violate competition law, whereas there is no unanimous approach to the narrow version of the same clauses."

"In the past years, EU national competition authorities (NCAs) have reached important decisions on parity clauses adopted by leading online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Booking.com and Expedia."

"whereas there is no unanimous approach to the narrow version of the same clauses."

"The majority of these online sales took place through OTAs, with Booking.com controlling almost 60% of the market."

"On 22 December 2015 the Bundeskartellamt prohibited Booking.com from applying its BPCs and ordered the company to delete them from its contracts and General Terms and Conditions by 31 January 2016 as far as they affected hotels in Germany."

"These restrictions require a hotel to set its lowest prices for a given room on a travel agency's website and have come under recent scrutiny by antitrust regulators."

"The application of Article 101 TFEU to these cases and the use of commitments decisions by many NCAs raise controversial questions."

"Competition authorities around the world are increasingly concerned about the anticompetitive effects of these clauses, especially in markets dominated by few players."

"In 2015, the French, Italian and Swedish national competition agencies, after investigating Booking.com, accepted its commitment to switch from wide to narrow price parity clauses"

"Our analysis finds that (i) restricting the broadest form of parity clauses, but leaving in place a more limited version, reduced prices by 3.2%; (ii) a complete ban on parity clauses reduces prices by 6.9%."

"A "wide" price parity clause requires that the price charged by the hotel on the OTA cannot be reduced when selling via alternative channels, including rival OTAs and direct selling."

"we provide suggestive evidence that both increased inter-OTA competition, as well competition between OTAs and hotels' direct channels, played a role in reducing prices."

"National Competition law authorities in UK and Germany started the process of abolishing the “best price” clause."

"Various National Competition Authorities in Europe agreed that best price clauses could restrict competition between OTAs for commission rates, but eventually arrived at different assessments and decisions"