Nearly 1,000 Irish hotels and guesthouses can seek damages from Booking.com in pricing row
Last year, the European Court of Justice ruled that so-called parity clauses imposed by Booking.com between 2006 and 2024 prevented hotels from offering lower prices or better availability through other channels and that they violated EU competition rules.
These clauses led to additional commissions, suppressed direct bookings and distorted online market competition.
Booking.com, which is headquartered in Amsterdam, had argued that such clauses were required to prevent consumers from being able to search for their hotels on its website, but then make their reservations on a hotel's website if the price was cheaper there.
If the reservations were not made via Booking.com, it couldn't charge a fee for its intermediary service, while hotels effectively still advertised over its platform. Now the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) has joined hotels across Europe in support of a collective legal action against Booking.com.
'Hotels are seeking substantial financial compensation for damages resulting from inflated commission rates charged by the platform,' the IHF notes.
It estimates that 900 hotels and guesthouses in Ireland are eligible to join the legal action. The IHF is already in contact with all those venues it believes were affected by the practice. The collective legal action is being supported by the European hospitality association Hotrec and more than 25 national hotel associations across Europe, said the IHF.
It added: 'Under the general principles of European competition law, hotels in Ireland and across Europe are now entitled to claim compensation from Booking.com for the financial losses suffered.
'Affected hotels may be eligible to recover a significant portion of commissions paid to Booking.com in any period from 2004 to 2024 plus interest.'
Paul Gallagher, the chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, said the legal action being taken in Amsterdam against Booking.com is 'unprecedented'.
'The platform's parity clauses have been a major issue for Irish hotels going back 20 years, resulting in significant financial harm due to the inflated levels of commissions charged,' he said
'We see this as an important opportunity to send a strong message to online booking platforms that unfair business practices will not go unchallenged.'
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