The Antitrust starts an investigation into Booking

On the case Booking Antitrust moves. THE’Competition and Market Guarantor Authority has started ainvestigation towards Booking.com B.V., Booking.com International B.V. e Booking.com (Italia) S.r.l. per unfair commercial practices.

The investigation into Booking

In particular, Booking.com would attribute to accommodation facilities members of the program Preferred Partners (and its extension Favorites Plus) and better positioning in the search results within the platform, more prominent graphic elements and claims to emphasize their quality of service and convenience in terms of value for moneydespite the admission requirements for these programs they would not be eligible to support the advantages recognized to those facilities.

Antitrust findings

According to theAuthorityin fact, the selection of the structures participating in the programs Preferred Partners it would mostly happen on the basis of criteria that favor those they provide higher commissions to Booking.com, rather than based on theirs qualitative characteristics.

Consequently, the methods of presentation of the structures and the claims used by Booking.com to emphasize their qualities could induce i consumers to make commercial decisions believing – mistakenly – that these structures are, with the same characteristics, better in terms of value for money compared to non-adherent structures.

The Gdf in the Booking offices

This could even lead to i consumers to select structures on average more expensive. Yesterday the officials ofAuthority they did inspections in the offices of Booking.com (Italia) with the help of Special Antitrust Unit from the Financial Police.