Travel website booking.com has been accused of causing financial harm to hotels through alleged unfair practices, with claims potentially amounting to billions of euros.
French and Spanish hoteliers, backed by the European hospitality association HOTREC, have been preparing legal action against the Dutch platform, a subsidiary of US giant Priceline Group, seeking major damages “for their [alleged] losses related to excessive commissions”, Marc Barennes, legal representative for the French hoteliers, told news agency AFP on April 21.
In France, the total amount of alleged damages suffered by hoteliers has been provisionally estimated at nearly €1.5 billion. In Spain, hoteliers were seeking compensation equivalent to approximately 2 per cent of their annual turnover. In Germany, 2,600 hoteliers have claimed more than €300 million in total alleged damages.
They all accused booking.com of allegedly engaging in unfair practices, particularly through the use of so-called “rate parity clauses”. These, the hoteliers claimed, prevented them from offering lower prices on their own websites, thereby restricting competition and reducing profitability.
German courts have previously opposed the use of such clauses on similar grounds.
A spokesperson for boooking.com told Brussels Signal on April 22: “We can confirm that we have not received any formal notice of a class action.
“At booking.com, we are proud of the professional relationship we have with our partners, and continue to be committed to a positive collaboration focused on growing together.”
The legal action followed a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice, which found rate parity clauses to be unnecessary and disproportionate.
HOTREC’s broader legal initiative, involving hoteliers from several countries, aimed to not only recover alleged damages but also to push for fundamental reforms in booking.com’s business practices.
Discussions were underway with law firms in other countries, including Italy and Portugal, with the intention of expanding the initiative and creating a united legal front across Europe. In France, Barennes said he hoped to bring the case before the French Commercial Courts by the end of October.
HOTREC claimed that booking.com was legally obliged to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) but that it had so far failed to ensure compliance.
Among the concerns raised were a lack of choice for consumers regarding the platform’s pre-payment option, issues related to the ranking of hotels and a general lack of transparency about how booking.com’s algorithms operated.
According to HOTREC’s 2024 European Distribution Study, booking.com remained the most dominant online travel agency, commanding a market share of more than 70 per cent.
Its commission rates — ranging from 15 to 27 per cent — can increase further for hotels that participated in promotional campaigns, significantly affecting hotel profitability, the group claimed.
Last summer, HOTREC’s director general, Marie Audren, accused booking.com of “withholding guest data from hotel partners and preventing hotels from offering better prices on their own websites”.
She alleged hotels were subjected to unfair business practices on a daily basis, resulting in financial loss, operational strain, and reputational damage. She called for these practices to be brought to an end.
In France, a dedicated website has been launched to collect data from hotels that used booking.com between 2015 and 2024, to help assess their potential losses and claim “compensation for [alleged] excessive commissions” paid to the platform.
As a class-action lawsuit, the case allowed participants to join without paying any upfront fees. Legal fees were only charged if the action was successful. The law firm leading the effort has reported previous successes in actions against major tech companies.
It was also claimed that individual hoteliers faced minimal risk of retaliation as their case would be indistinguishable within the broader collective action.
Barennes has also initiated a similar legal action in the hospitality sector, representing restaurant owners against the issuers of meal vouchers that have been sanctioned in France for anti-competitive practices.
The European Commission has indicated it would limit its Digital Markets Act (DMA) fines due in the week starting April 1 on Apple and Meta and drop a separate case against Apple entirely. https://t.co/SDRqy8jMyX
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 28, 2025
