Booking, antitrust investigation for unfair commercial practices

The Antitrust has opened an investigation against Booking.com, Booking.com International and Booking.com (Italia) for unfair commercial practices. According to the authority Booking would present the accommodation structures adhering to the "Preferred Partners" and "Preferred Partners Plus" programmes as selected on the basis of service quality and value for money, although the requirements for access to these programmes do not seem to guarantee these characteristics on the part of the adhering structures.

The Competition Authority points out that the portal would give the accommodation facilities adhering to the Partner Preferiti programme (and to its extension Preferiti Plus) a better positioning in the search results within the platform, more prominent graphic elements and claims to emphasise the quality of the service and the value for money, despite the fact that the admission requirements to these programmes would not be suitable to support the advantages recognised to those facilities.

According to the Antitrust Authority, in fact, the selection of the structures adhering to the Preferred Partner programmes would mostly take place on the basis of criteria that favour those that provide higher commissions to Booking.com, rather than on the basis of their qualitative characteristics. Consequently, the manner in which the establishments are presented and the claims used by Booking.com to emphasise their qualities could induce consumers to make commercial decisions believing - erroneously - that these establishments are, with the same characteristics, better value for money than non-member establishments.

This could even lead consumers to select on average more expensive accommodation. On Tuesday 21 April, the Authority's officials carried out inspections at Booking.com's offices (Italia) with the help of the Nucleo Speciale Antitrust of the Guardia di Finanza.