Hotels Still Afraid to Take on Expedia and Booking.com Despite Rule Changes
Skift Take
While European Union competition authorities might be happy with the results of their crackdowns, it doesn't look like much has changed. The market still makes it difficult for both smaller online travel agencies and the hotels themselves to compete.
The power of Expedia and Booking.com doesn’t seem to have been dented by the well-publicized competition law changes made in countries across Europe over the past few years.
A new study released by European Union (EU) competition authorities shows that their well-intentioned moves have had a limited impact in the world of online travel agencies and hotels.
Several European countries have attempted to deal with alleged anti-competitive practices employed by the two biggest online travel agencies -- Expedia and Booking.com -- through various pieces of legislation.
The changes were enacted to try and improve competition by outlawing or restricting parity clauses in contracts between hotels and third parties.
Although individual countries brought the action, both Expedia and Booking.com decided to amend their policies for the whole EU.
In essence this meant that hotels would no longer be forced to give the online travel agency the lowest prices and best availability and would be free to cut better deals elsewhere – apart from on their own websites.
Germany went further still by outlawing Booking.com’s tweak (it is still
