The Federal Antimonopoly Service has opened an antitrust case against the online service Booking.com for violating the Law on the Protection of Competition.
"On December 27, 2019, the Federal Antimonopoly Service opened a case on violation of the Law on Protection of Competition against the limited liability company Booking.com BV. The violation consisted of imposing on accommodation facilities (hotels, hostels, etc.) on the territory of the Russian Federation the terms of the agreement on the need for mandatory provision and observance of parity of prices and rooms, as well as the terms of interaction with closed user groups," the press service of the department reported.
In addition, the company's actions to impose unfavorable terms of the contract, according to which the accommodation facility cannot set the price for its services on one aggregator of information about accommodation facilities lower than on another, and does not have the opportunity to offer a better price for its services to third parties, may lead to the infringement of the interests of accommodation facilities, as well as to the restriction and elimination of competition in this market.
“Failure to comply with the warning from the FAS Russia will result in the initiation of a case for violation of antimonopoly legislation,” the Service added.
Let us recall that by mid-June 2020, the European Commission obliged the online hotel booking service Booking.com to provide truthful information about discounts and stop using manipulative methods when issuing search results.
Source: trn-news.ru