The Italian Competition Authority has opened an investigation concerning Booking.com Italia S.r.l., Booking.com B.V. e Booking.com International B.V. to ascertain an alleged abuse of dominant position in the market for online intermediation and booking services. More specifically, Booking is allegedly granting to the hotels that join the Preferred Partner Program advantages in terms of visibility of their own offerings in the search results, in exchange for higher commission fees and a commitment to offer “competitive” prices on Booking.com, namely prices not higher than those applied by hotels on their own websites or platforms of other online travel agencies. Meanwhile, when its capillary and sophisticated monitoring activity finds that a hotel partner offers better prices on other online channels, Booking reserves the right to apply, without the consent of its hotel partners, a discount in order to align prices on its platform to the best online offer available. Yesterday, AGCM’s officials carried out inspections at the premises of Booking.com Italia S.r.l., aided by the Special Antitrust Unit of the Italian Financial Police.
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