Swiss price watchdog orders Booking.com to lower prices
ZURICH, May 21 (Reuters) - Switzerland's price watchdog has ordered Booking.com (BKNG.O), opens new tab to lower its prices in the country, finding that the online travel agency's commission rates for hotels are "abusively high," the supervisory body said on Wednesday.
In accordance with the order, Booking.com must reduce its commission rates for Swiss hotels by almost a quarter, the watchdog said in a statement.
Booking.com vowed to appeal the decision and said its rates would not change until the appeal process was resolved.
"We don't agree with a forced reduction in the cost of a product that is entirely optional," it said in a statement.
The Swiss watchdog said the cost reduction must be implemented three months after the ruling becomes legally binding, and would remain in effect for three years.
Earlier this week the Spanish government ordered Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab to withdraw over 65,000 listings for holiday rentals which it said violated existing rules from its platform.
The step was part of a broader Spanish crackdown on tourism rentals via sites such as Airbnb and Booking.com, which critics blame for contributing to a housing crisis in the country.
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The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Champions League final the calm before storm as Uefa and Fifa battle rolls on
In regal Odeonsplatz, the finishing touches are being applied to a fan zone that will accommodate Inter's travelling fans under an azure sky. It will surely be full to capacity given about 40,000 Nerazzurri are expected to arrive in time for Saturday's Champions League final, even if under half that number will officially make it into Allianz Arena for the match itself. This is not only an appointment with history for their opponents, Paris Saint-Germain; Inter have blended silk with street-fighting qualities to stand on the verge of their first European title since 2010. Gianni Infantino is unlikely to be among the melee but the Fifa president's sympathies are well documented. He will be quietly rooting for Inter from the VIP seats and perhaps it will be an opportune moment for some bridge building. There is a constituency of Inter fans in Uefa's higher echelons, after all, and football's biggest governing bodies could certainly do with discovering a few acres of common ground. Surface temperatures have, at least, cooled since a number of European delegates at the Fifa congress walked out this month in protest at Infantino's prioritising of meetings in the Middle East. A conciliatory public statement from Uefa saw to that, although nobody should assume all is forgiven behind the scenes. There is little love lost between their respective leaderships and the summer ahead is only likely to intensify the power struggle for the future of the elite game. It means that, from Uefa's perspective, there is every incentive to pull off a bravura spectacle on Saturday night. The revamped Club World Cup, Infantino's deeply controversial pet project, begins in a fortnight and a statement of who runs the biggest show in town would be timely. Inter and PSG could face each other again in that competition's final; they are on opposite sides of the draw and it is hardly an impossible scenario if enough can be wrung from their overstretched players. But a show for the ages in Munich would be a hard act to follow, and demonstrate that the traditional gongs, albeit in their heavily updated form, still hold the greatest weight. Greeting visitors to the coffee lounge at Hotel Bayerischer Hof, handed over to Uefa and their wide-ranging entourage for the weekend, are mannequins clothed in replica shirts bearing the names of Lautaro Martínez and Marquinhos. Perhaps that inadvertently speaks of an obvious inconvenience in this final's grapple for eyeballs: the lack of a global superstar to reel in casual enthusiasts. That should not spoil the game itself, which will be finely poised between a free-flowing PSG and an Inter side that can deliver knockout blows at a stroke. It is hard to escape the thought, though, that the commercial brains in Nyon would have deemed Lamine Yamal's presence more future-facing. How much the presence of Linkin Park at the now obligatory pre-match show will enthral younger fans is a different question, albeit not an altogether separate matter. The influential European Club Association (ECA) chair Nasser al-Khelaifi, who also happens to run PSG, has never been shy to say he wants these occasions to rival a Super Bowl in tone and glamour. Given the ECA's ever-growing power, it would not hurt Uefa to deliver one. Fifa will certainly try to do that when the Club World Cup concludes in New Jersey on 13 July. Khelaifi sits astride football's sparring factions, with sources describing him as modern football's kingmaker. The ECA leadership have fully backed Infantino's tournament, to the extent that a handful of staff are working full time on preparations for the event. But their recent joint commercial venture with Uefa, UC3, promises to supercharge the Champions League's presence and influence across the Atlantic. Which competition will ultimately produce the kind of jamboree Khelaifi envisages? Uefa is satisfied, at least, that this season's reformatted Champions League has proved successful. Insiders have sung the praises of its 36-team 'league phase' to the point of evangelism, even if its debut edition did not ultimately deliver the level of tension and jeopardy that had been threatened. This weekend is seen an opportune moment to discuss feedback given by participating clubs. Small tweaks may follow, but there will be no fundamental changes to the structure. One alteration that may come closer to fruition in Munich would see the clubs that finished higher in the league phase given the perceived advantage of a home second leg in the knockout stage in an attempt to incentivise performance in that sprawling first round. Next season a six-strong English contingent will knock the Champions League's remaining credibility as a truly representative European tournament, even if it offers an accurate snapshot of the Premier League's overwhelming strength. Nineteen of the 36 league phase competitors will come from England, Germany, Spain or Italy; a Super League is effectively here by stealth, but few of the gathered stakeholders in Bavaria feel moved to obsess over a lack of diversity. Instead they will savour a radiant weekend in a city that certainly offers a sufficiently highbrow stage. In Königsplatz, PSG's supporters will gather in their own specially designated area. The location, a stone's throw from Odeonsplatz, may keep security personnel on their toes. Passing through the Bayerischer Hof lobby, Khelaifi laughed off any suggestion nerves may consume him on Saturday. The final looks too close to call. Maybe Infantino, along with a number of his peers from Uefa, will depart with the glow of a champion, but the powerbrokers' grievances are unlikely to melt entirely in the Bavarian sun.
BBC News
35 minutes ago
- BBC News
'A footballing architect' - how Enrique led PSG to brink of glory
Paris St-Germain's journey to the brink of glory in the Champions League final started when the final giant symbol of the club's so-called "bling bling" era was swept Mbappe's decision to join Real Madrid last summer saw the only remaining member of the superstar attacking trio, which included Neymar and Lionel Messi, leave Paris, clearing the way for PSG's switch of strategy under coach Luis described by those within PSG as "a footballing architect", seized his chance, convincing club president Nasser al-Khelaifi and football advisor Luis Campos that he could build a younger, better, more cohesive side in the post-Mbappe so it has proved, as now only a formidable Inter Milan team stand between this thrilling young PSG side and the crown they crave most, the Champions fuelled by brilliant young talents such as 19-year-old Desire Doue and Georgian genius Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and inspired by Enrique, who has known such tragedy and triumph in his life, have become a genuine Champions League feel-good story on the they now provide a happy ending? Enrique inspires new PSG era Luis Enrique walks barefoot on the grass of Campus PSG, the club's training ground 25 minutes away from their Parc des Princes home, every morning as part of his devotion to "earthing", believing it brings him closer to nature and helps fight off the 55-year-old Asturian can bring the Champions League to Paris for the first time, PSG's fanatical ultras will be believe he can also walk on appointment in July 2023 was a clear signal that PSG were moving away from the superstar culture, a dramatic change of direction which appealed to a coach bolted on to the team football expert Julien Laurens told BBC Sport: "They wanted someone to build something for the future, with patience. He was the best candidate."The considered people of the calibre of Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho. These guys are winners but they win now. They don't really build anything. Luis Enrique fitted what PSG wanted."Former Brazil midfielder Rai, who was a member of the only PSG team to win a European trophy in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1996, is also an Enrique told BBC Sport: "Nowadays, for a team to be considered complete and with a good chance of winning major titles, they need not only talent, but 100% commitment from all players, at all times of the game, whether defending or attacking, with or without the ball."What is most impressive about Luis Enrique's management is the fact that he achieved this in such a short time, and especially with such young players. This shows that his tactical scheme was well understood, that the players believe in him, and that his system is very effective."Away from the pitch, the coach also demanded a level of control that had escaped predecessors such as Unai Emery, Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino and Christophe Galtier."Luis Enrique is the leader of the club," said Laurens. "For a long time it was run by the superstars. If they didn't want to do something they wouldn't do it. They would go straight to the president. It undermined the coach - not any more." Enrique's authority is absolute when it comes to playing matters at Minonzio, based in Paris with influential sports paper L'Equipe, told BBC Sport: "People at PSG understood there had been a problem of authority in the last few years."Galtier was a French manager, and a good one, but lacked the experience to impose his views. He was a very good manager, but not strong enough to face Mbappe and say things to him."It was the same with Mauricio Pochettino. It was always said his obsession was to have peace in the dressing room. He never took any decisions that went against Messi and Mbappe,"Enrique was not having that. He told PSG clearly 'If I am the boss and I will be the boss'. He's now the guy who embodies the whole club, the whole team."Enrique is obsessive about PSG and his own self-discipline down to the finest details, with his watch even alerting him if he has not carried out any stretching or movement for 30 2007, he successfully took on the Frankfurt Ironman challenge - a 2.4-mile swim, a 118-mile cycle and a full marathon. In 2008, he ran the gruelling Marathon de Sables, a 155-mile race staged over six days in the Sahara is, however, someone with true perspective after losing his nine-year-old daughter Xana to a rare form of bone cancer in has said: "Her body is gone, but she hasn't died. She's still with us. "Physically, she may not be here, but spiritually she is. Because every day we talk about her, we laugh, and we remember because I think Xana still sees us."It enables him to reflect on the realities of football, once saying: "I'm not afraid of the worst in football If they sack me, no problem. The next day, I'll go for a cycling trip."Should Enrique win his second Champions League, following a triumph with Barcelona in 2015, it will be a moment of history and high emotion in Munich. PSG young guns outshine 'Galacticos' Mbappe's departure was PSG's clear the air moment. The French superstar may have added goals and a touch of genius, but the landscape shifted at Parc des Princes once he saw it as the opportunity to exert complete control on how PSG played, with brilliant, but ultimately individualistic, Mbappe control was over a new "team" - in the literal sense of the word - with Enrique focusing on young talent he could mould rather than established, often ego-driven, believed it might take more than this season to challenge for the biggest prize, namely the Champions League, and a slow start to the campaign backed this may regard reaching the Champions League final as being ahead of new era truly began when Premier League champions Manchester City were thrashed 4-2 on a rain-lashed night in Paris and the new brigade like Doue and Bradley Barcola came to prominence. Ousmane Dembele, restored from his Barcelona struggles, delivered a stunning cameo as so it went on, as this trio helped PSG take a wrecking ball to the Premier League's elite, Liverpool, Aston Villa and then Arsenal beaten in the knockout stage to reach Munich. To add to their growing power, Kvaratskhelia arrived from Napoli in January for 70m euros (£59m) plus add-ons to complete the Scotland winger and BBC Sport pundit Pat Nevin is a long-time Kvaratskhelia fan saying: "He has got everything I want from a winger, but a bit more as well. "He always wants to take players on. He wants to attack players. He has lots of tricks and flicks. He does unusual things and he breaks lines. Never ever fearful, always positive and wants to entertain."You need two people to mark him. If he doesn't go by players, he draws players towards him, and then he slips others in because he has developed the space." Doue had a slow start but, along with Barcola and Dembele, was the beneficiary of Enrique's one-on-one attention, the coach utterly invested in the young talent that would decorate his new said: "What impresses me most about them [PSG's young forwards] is that they combine technical quality, tactical obedience and physical intensity with personality. All of them have an impressive ability to dribble and improvise."And there is no preferential treatment. All are equal in Enrique's was dropped before the Champions League game at Arsenal in October after Enrique expressed dissatisfaction with his work-rate in a Ligue 1 game against returned transformed and freshly motivated, leading PSG's run to the Ligue 1 title, the Coupe de France - and now with the Champions League in their by average age, PSG are the youngest side to have progressed beyond the play-off round in the Champions League this season at 24 years 262 their intense, high-pressing style is illustrated by the fact they rank first in the tournament this season for shot-ending high turnovers (37). They frequently turn high-presses into attacking will be a final of youth against experience, with the average age of Inter Milan's starting 11 in the Champions League this season 30 years and 19 days - the oldest among all 36 teams involved in the will hope Enqrique's potent blend of youthful brilliance and more experienced figures such as captain Marquinhos and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who has had a superb Champions League campaign, will finally bring trophy back to Paris. PSG's "Ultras" expectant in Munich The famous Virage Auteuil, where PSG's ultras gather at one end of Parc des Princes, will be transported to Munich for one night only for this watch PSG cut a swathe through the Premier League's best on the way to Munich was to witness the dial of expectation turned up with every game in a kaleidoscope of colour and a wall of followers were denied the chance to attend the club's only previous Champions League final, when they lost 1-0 behind closed doors to Bayern Munich at Lisbon's Stadium Of Light during the Covid a special welcome will await PSG's players of the sort that has become familiar at Parc des Princes. "Beaten By The Waves, Paris Never Sunk" read the tifo stretching along one end of Virage Auteuil before they beat Manchester City, while "55 years of memory behind you to write history" was the message before Arsenal were beaten in the semi-final second leg in will, no doubt, be fresh motivational messages for PSG's players on Saturday the previous 10 seasons, PSG have reached two semi-finals, two quarter-finals, the last 16 five times, and that one final under colourful fans have been flooding into Munich for the biggest night in their history, anticipation heavy in the air that Luis Enrique's emerging side can at last cross that elusive final frontier.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Trent Alexander-Arnold's value to Real Madrid could be immense
No-one can say any longer that Trent Alexander-Arnold left Liverpool as a free agent in the conventional sense – indeed he was the most expensive free agent in the post-Bosman era. He arrived in Madrid on Friday with Real having decided that the £10 million they will pay Liverpool for his registration in the 29-day interim that precedes his free agency at the end of the month is worth the gamble. The winners of the Fifa Club World Cup will bank $125 million (£93 million) in prize money, the most lucrative pot in the history of football, calculated per game. Should Real triumph in Gianni Infantino's new tournament, with Alexander-Arnold as a key figure, that £10 million investment will have paid for itself. The modern Real Madrid is many things: a thrilling show, a nod to a great past, a house maintained on a shrinking financial pre-eminence, a lot of debt. Alexander-Arnold joins a club very different to the one that David Beckham signed for in 2003 – but no less certain of its place at the centre of the football world. Success or otherwise will be dictated by Alexander-Arnold's performances, but he will soon learn there is a lot else going on at Real besides. The club makes great play of his membership-owned status while complaining constantly about the disadvantages of being constituted thus. It is on the cusp of change - a full or partial privatisation, the nature of which is as yet unresolved, in return for a giant cash injection. The succession race to follow the 78-year-old president Florentino Perez, in charge for 22 of the last 25 years, is likely to be brutal. Alexander-Arnold is one of a small group of free agents, along with Antonio Rudiger and Kylian Mbappe whom Real have skilfully peeled away from European rivals. Not every player has the resilience needed to run a contract down. It requires a certain kind of character to power through it all and Real's squad is informed by that. Alexander-Arnold can learn something from each of his English predecessors at Real. Beckham went through a long courtship in 2002 and then into 2003, that survived a late twist when United agreed a fee with Barcelona contingent on Joan Laporta winning the presidential election. Even so, it was Barcelona's 2003 summer signing who was considerably more successful. Ronaldinho won two Liga titles and the Champions League in the four-year period Beckham spent at Madrid. Michael Owen's move two years later was something of an afterthought – and it showed in the way he regarded it. In his first memoirs, Owen said that he made his decision almost immediately that he would not stay beyond a year and he never moved out of his hotel accommodation. Jonathan Woodgate's move between the two was an anomaly – although he was a talented player and considered worth a risk if the pieces had fallen right. Jude Bellingham joined Real much earlier in his career and his first season instantly made him a greater success than all those Englishmen at Real who had preceded him – including the pioneer, Laurie Cunningham. For Alexander-Arnold, the challenge is different. Xabi Alonso, the team's new manager, will have to wrangle some difficult tactical and personnel issues. The long pursuit of Mbappe was finally completed last summer and yet the biggest star of the next generation at the club of the big stars seems to have been an awkward fit at times. How manageable is Mbappe? He scored 43 goals last season but against Arsenal in their Champions League defeat Real had clearly regressed as a European force. Into this comes Alexander-Arnold, an established name himself, albeit currently lower down the superstar scale than the likes of Mbappe and Vinicius Junior. The Englishman does have the advantage of joining a team that has, by Real's standards, failed this season. A new manager will be able to make difficult decisions with that in mind. Alonso will surely play to the strengths of Alexander-Arnold although for every stellar name introduced to the team, to make room another must fall. Bellingham has already outstripped Beckham's impact in terms of trophies. In the recent Beckham Netflix documentary, his Real generation were presented as a brave bunch of underdogs fighting against the odds. The reality was that they were the most expensively-acquired, haphazard group of superstars the game had known at that point. They burned through a series of hapless coaches. Post-Carlo Ancelotti, that is the trap that Real have avoided on that extraordinary run of six Champions League triumphs in the last 12 seasons. They lost the Liga title to a Barcelona team in breach of Liga financial controls, and increasingly seem to exist beyond regulation – at least in Spain. Real have not taken fewer risks but still find themselves walking a fine line. The deal with the US investor Sixth Street for 30 per cent of commercial revenue from the remodelled Bernabeu for the next 20 years hangs over the club. What other cards does the club have to play? Reports in Spain suggest the club will now redevelop the packet of land known as Las Tablas which was part of the original state aid case against it more than ten years ago. The European competitions commission is likely to take an interest again. Yet were it not for these limitations perhaps Real would never have alighted upon Alexander-Arnold. There are few full-backs of his quality in the world - and only one available as a free agent this summer. Real do not have the spending power they did 22 years ago, and that they were prepared to splash £10 million on less than a month of Alexander-Arnold, the man himself should take as the greatest endorsement yet of his value from his new club.
