European Union Antitrust Boss Cites Booking and Google in Regulatory Remarks

Online Travel This Week

There’s a lot to unpack from the dual regulatory initiatives that the European Commission unveiled this week, and it can’t be welcome news to Google, Amazon, and Booking.com that antitrust czar Margrethe Vestager mentioned them Tuesday when advocating for “a complete set of tools” to marry antitrust and regulatory efforts when policing designated “gatekeepers.”

The proposed Digital Markets Act would bar gatekeeper platforms from using the data they collect from businesses they host to compete against these same companies. Talk about frenemies.

It would also prohibit giant platforms from “self-preferencing” their own products, and ensure that third-party companies would not be shut out of any proprietary payments’ systems the platforms develop.

Google and Amazon would definitely fall into some of these buckets, but it is unclear whether Booking.com, which is developing a payments platform as a strategic priority, would be targeted. Booking.com CEO Glenn Fogel is vehemently fighting the notion that the company is a gatekeeper, as defined by the European Commission, but that could be an uphill battle.

Bernstein’s Richard Clarke argued in an investor note that Booking.com would “certainly” fit into the gatekeeper category because “13 percent of European hotel revenues are booked via its sites.”

Meanwhile, the Digital Services Act, which would apply to all companies operating in Europe, and not just the gatekeepers, would force more transparency from platforms, including having to explain the methodology behind their algorithms. So would Airbnb and Booking have to explain why a professional host might be listed higher on a page than an individual owner? Look for lots of haggling over the fine print — and everything else.

[Update: Booking.com issued a statement Thursday saying it supports “a targeted gatekeeper regulation” but thinks the European Commission’s quantitative criteria are “insufficient.”

Here’s the statement:

“Booking.com supports a targeted gatekeeper regulation that effectively addresses competitive abuses in the digital economy. But travel is a highly competitive industry as consumers use dozens of ways to search for and book a hotel room. Likewise hotels market their rooms on numerous on and offline channels. This is reflected in our market share: in Europe we account for about 13 percent of hotel revenues.

T”he Commission’s quantitative criteria are a starting point but alone are insufficient for establishing a gatekeeper designation. Regulation needs to focus on those companies that control access to a critical number of consumers who – at least in the medium term – cannot be reached otherwise. It cannot just be about the size of a platform. It must be about its lock on consumers.

“It is good that the Commission has provided the option for a more qualitative assessment in its proposal. We are happy to work with the Member States and the European Parliament to get to a proper and sound definition.”]

Let the Lobbying Begin

A coalition of online companies, including Tripadvisor as the only travel industry representative, formed a coalition in the United States to lobby Congress for the continuation of Community Decency Act Section 230 benefits. The provision, which has come under attack, in part enables online platforms to post user reviews without facing liability for those comments.

Other members of Internet Works include Dropbox, eBay, Etsy, Glassdoor, Reddit, and the Wikimedia Foundation, among others. The group fears that authorities don’t understand the breadth of the Act’s protections, and might carry out hasty revisions that would undermine competition and content moderation.

Mixed Emotions for Ex-Airbnb Employee

Although Airbnb cancelled hundreds of millions of dollars in unvested stock options this year, we spoke with one ex-employee, who was laid off in 2020, about her excitement the day the company went public, and flirted with a $100 billion valuation.

The ex-employee, who declined to be identified, had enough time served so that some of her restricted stock units were vested. The former staffer said the stock market debut was a very emotional day, but she also felt disappointment that she no longer worked for the company.

Her stock options were worth “more than $10,000″ after the first day of trading, but even if they plunge she plans to hold onto them as a nest egg long after the lock-up period for selling them expires in six months. “I also know I’m not going to touch it for a really long time,” she said. “I’m going to play the long game with this.”

Asked if she worried about long-term regulatory headwinds for Airbnb, the ex-worker expressed confidence in what she characterized as the enterprising people running the company, arguing that there will always be hurdles, but these executives will find a way to adapt.

Sounds good. We’ll see.

In Brief

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HotelTonight, Luxury Retreats and Urbandoor Benefitted From Airbnb IPO

Investors in HotelTonight, Luxury Retreats, and Urbandoor, all of which got paid at least partially in stock when Airbnb acquired them, had to be smiling about Airbnb’s soaring valuation in the days following the IPO. What goes up can come down, though, in terms of stock prices before a six-month lock-up period runs its course. Skift

Hotelbeds Partners With Flight Centre

Wholesaler Hotelbeds will distribute its 180,000 properties to Flight Centre, with its base of travel agents in Asia-Pacific, South Africa, Dubai, the UK and North America, under the terms of a preferred relationship. The deal will expand Hotelbeds’ geographic reach and supplement the Australia-based travel agency’s direct hotel partnerships. Hotelbeds

Lufthansa and Sabre Come to Terms

After a few years of rancor, surcharges and threats of disenfranchisement, Lufthansa and Sabre reached an agreement in principle for travel agents connected to the global distribution system to get access to the airline’s content under new commercial models. No one is saying, though, what those models are. Skift