On Thursday 6 April, the European Commission and the national competition authorities of ten member states (Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) decided to continue monitoring the online hotel booking sector, following the results of a joint study into the measures taken in the sector to ensure fair competition.
Central to the investigation of the guardians of competition are the parity clauses that feature in contracts between booking platforms (such as booking.com) and hotels. Commission spokesperson Ricardo Cardoso explained that some of these clauses prevented hotels from announcing special offers themselves (narrow parity clause). Other clauses prevent hotels from having lower prices on rival platforms (extended parity clause).
Booking.com has taken measures to modify its clauses. According to the joint investigation, 47% of the hotels that responded to the survey said that they were unaware of the changes made by booking.com and Expedia. Of the hotels that were aware, most had not changed their practices on the basis of these changes.
Analyses comparing the situation before and after the corrective measures were taken suggest that moving from extended to narrow parity clauses may have increased pricing differentiation between online booking platforms in most countries (eight member states out of ten).
80% of the hotels said that they had not changed behaviour regarding the differentiation and availability of rooms between platforms since the move to narrow parity clauses. These clauses allow hotels to make different options available to different booking platforms.
Lastly, as regards the commission charged by these platforms, nine out of hotels that responded to the survey said that there had been no changes in the commission rates. Very few hotels claimed to have negotiated lower room prices in exchange for a lower commission rate. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)