Monitoring launched in online hotel booking sector
PRESS RELEASE
Monitoring the impact of the new parity clauses in the contracts with online travel agencies by the Italian Competition Authority in partnership with 9 other National Competition Authorities
The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), in partnership with the European Commission and nine other NCAs (Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden and UK), will monitor the impact of the measures undertaken as a result of antitrust investigations on the online hotel reservations market (decision no. 25422 and decision no. 25940).
The analysis concerns the changes in the parity clauses in standard contracts between hotels and online travel agencies and will look at their impact on the way in which hotels market their rooms, as well as on entry conditions and on fees for hotels. Questionnaires, based on a common approach across the 10 countries, will be sent to a sample of hotels, online travel agents and metasearch engines in all participating Member States. Preliminary results will be presented by the end of 2016.
Rome, 6 September 2016