Class Action Against Booking: Local Hotels Also Involved

According to the Austrian Hotel Association (ÖHV), about 400 Austrian businesses have joined the class action against Booking. The European industry association Hotrec has extended the deadline for hotels to join the lawsuit to August 29. So far, over 10,000 hotels have participated.

Booking Best Price Clauses Prohibit Hotels from Offering Cheaper Deals on Their Own Website

The reason for the lawsuit is the so-called parity clauses of the platform, which the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently questioned. This would result in claims for damages for hotels, which are to be asserted with the class action, claims the association. Hotrec coordinates the initiative, which is aimed at accommodation establishments where guests booked through Booking.com between 2004 and 2024. ÖHV President Walter Veit also criticized in the Ö1 "Morgenjournal" the amount of commissions demanded by the dominant booking platform - according to Ö1, these range between twelve and 20 percent.

On portals like Booking.com, HRS, and Expedia, users can compare a variety of hotels and other accommodations and also book directly. For each successful mediation through the site, the hotel pays a commission. This is factored into the room price - so the user pays indirectly. With bookings directly at the hotel, such a commission naturally does not apply. Here, the rooms could be cheaper. This is where the so-called best price clauses of Booking.com come into play, which prohibited hotels from offering rooms cheaper through their own sales channels. The price clauses criticized by the ECJ are now banned.

(APA/Red)

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