Hotels Escalate Long-Running Battle Against Booking.com's Pricing Rules
Hotels have complained about Booking.com's contract terms related to pricing for about two decades, but their long-running dispute has shifted to seeking financial compensation for the practice. This effort by hotels to win damages appears to be gaining momentum.
Many trade groups last week said they backed legal claims against the online travel giant over its so-called rate parity clauses. These clauses typically prevented hotels from offering lower rates on their own websites or rival platforms than what they charged on Booking.com.
The online travel company, based in Amsterdam, has long defended the clauses as necessary to its business model, though it dropped them last year in Europe.
Here's the state of play in the long-simmering dispute.
What's New
Last week, 26 national hotel associations for the first time coordinated to argue that Booking.com stifled competition with rate parity clauses they say violated European Union competition law between 2004 and 2024 and to seek damages for affected hotels across Europe.
Booking.com's parent company Booking Holdings has consistently denied wrongdoing.
In 2024, the European Commission labeled Booking.com a "ga
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
How Trump's Travel Crackdown Is Hurting Americans at Home and Abroad
This is part of Reason's 2025 summer travel issue. Click here to read the rest of the issue. As the Trump administration began snatching college students, detaining legal European tourists, denying entry to British crust-punks, rejecting transgender passports, deporting tattooed Salvadorans, insulting the sovereignty of Canadians, and floating plans to ban visitors from 43 countries, the domestic travel and tourism industry braced itself for bad news. "Historical data underscores that trade and geopolitical tensions influence travel demand," warned the research firm Tourism Economics in late February. The group had previously estimated that inbound visits to the U.S. in 2025 would rise 8.8 percent over last year; now it was forecasting a 5.1 percent drop. What's more, inbound travel spending this year "could fall by 12.3 [percent], amounting to a $22 billion annual loss." Sure enough, the year-over-year foreign visitor numbers in March were brutal. Down a jaw-dropping 18.4 percent, they were led by a sharp drop-off from America's No. 1 supplier: Canada. Then came President Donald Trump's 11th week in office. On April 2, the populist president capped a lifelong enthusiasm for tariffs ("the most beautiful word in the dictionary," he has said on multiple occasions) by announcing import taxes that averaged 22 percent, the largest ratchet in U.S. history. The move came as a triple whammy to America's globe-leading $200 billion travel and tourism industry. First, as the luxury travel agent Kate Sullivan told TravelPulse, "the cost of hard goods will increase for hotels, airlines, and other industry sectors, who will likely need to increase rates and fares to cover the increases." Second, the disruptions to the global trading system will hit especially hard some of the fastest-growing sources of U.S. visitation—China, India, and Japan. And finally, the concomitant souring of overseas public opinion, particularly in regions (Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, North America) singled out for criticism by the Trump administration, is already depressing numbers. "The U.S. is not perceived as a welcoming destination," travel agency owner Marco Jahn told the Associated Press after the tariffs were announced. Americans whose incomes are not tethered to the enthusiasms of overseas visitors may have the impression that such industry turmoil will leave their own travel plans unscathed. Alas, they are mistaken. For starters, domestic hoteliers are heavily reliant on imports for furniture, especially from high-tariffed China and Vietnam. Trump's own hotels are filled with foreign-made dishware, chandeliers, and even American flags. Making goods more expensive immediately reduces Americans' discretionary spending, which is the bucket from which travel budgets are drawn. Recessions decrease vacations, sometimes sharply; after Trump's tariffs, most of the major economic forecasting agencies (Moody's, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morningstar) jacked up their expectations for an economic downturn. Consumer confidence also tracks closely with travel planning; the former was at a four-year low even before "Liberation Day" tariffs. Further losses in the stock market—as of press time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped 3 percent since Inauguration Day—would also depress demand. It gets worse for the American traveler. Over the decades, the dollar has been propped up by Washington's leadership role in global tariff reduction; now that those tables have been turned, the greenback will be less desirable as the world's backstop currency, placing downward pressure on its value (particularly if America's heretofore world-beating economy begins to sputter). The dollar in Trump's first four months slid 7 percent against the euro. American bookings to the now-more-expensive overseas were already down 13 percent this year before Trump's tariffs. It's not just cost: A mid-March Travel Weekly survey of 400 agents found that 59 percent had heard customer concern about anti-American sentiment abroad, with 22 percent reporting resultant cancellations. A YouGov poll in early March showed that not a single European country surveyed had a net positive view of the U.S., with favorability plummeting between 6 and 28 percentage points over the previous quarter. "In Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Italy, these are the lowest figures…since we began tracking this question," the pollster wrote. So Americans will be traveling domestically, right? Not so fast. Starting on May 7, a whole 17 years after it was originally supposed to happen, Americans are no longer allowed to board a commercial flight unless using a REAL ID. Except Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said, "If it's not compliant, they may be diverted to a different line, have an extra step, but people will be allowed to fly." As of April, the Transportation Security Administration was reporting that 19 percent of current travelers were passing through checkpoints without Real ID–compliant documents. That's one "papers, please" hassle; another has the potential to affect citizens who don't even board a plane. Amid his Day 1 blizzard of executive orders, Trump signed the ominous-sounding Protecting the American People Against Invasion executive order, requiring foreigners of all nationalities to register with and get fingerprinted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) within 30 days of being in the country, unless they are exempted by a preexisting visa. Aimed at (and interpreted as) cracking down on resident illegal aliens, the order also affects the millions of Canadians who until now have been allowed to travel visa-free into the U.S. for up to six months. What does this have to do with U.S. citizens? Enforcement. As of April 11, according to the DHS' final rule, "An alien's willful failure or refusal to apply to register or to be fingerprinted is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 or imprisonment for up to six months, or both." Registered aliens "must at all times carry and have in their personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card," or else face a $5,000 fine or 30 days in jail. How does law enforcement determine that a human who either does not have or refuses to show identification is actually an alien? This will surely be tested in court. Not being fully free to move about the country is, regrettably, a condition that most Americans have already been living with, in the form of Immigration and Customs Enforcement roadside checkpoints within 100 miles of international borders (a zone that covers two-thirds of the population). And for 99 percent of us, coughing up documentation we were already carrying is a low-impact inconvenience. But millions of Americans this year will still travel in foreign lands, where they are likely to run into an iron rule of international relations: What we do to foreigners, foreigners are eventually going to do to us. Right now, U.S. passport holders can visit most of the world's countries without a visa or with a visa on arrival for up to 90 days. If the DHS gets into the habit of detaining and fingerprinting Europeans after their 30th day of vacation, you can expect that liberalism to constrict. There is precedent. In 2009, as a result of the 9/11 terror attacks, the U.S. created the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, requiring extra fees, wait times, probing questions, and machine-readable passports of visitors even from the now-43 countries in the Visa Waiver Program. The European Union responded with the European Travel Information and Authorization System, which would have been instituted years ago had Eurocrats developed technological competence in the meantime. (Current D-Day estimates are for the end of 2026.) The era of permissionless and comparatively anonymous travel is over. Trade wars are making international exchange more expensive and less fun. And even those of us who choose America and stay off planes may find ourselves asked to prove our legal status to a man with a gun. The past was another country indeed, one that many of us wish we could still visit. The post How Trump's Travel Crackdown Is Hurting Americans at Home and Abroad appeared first on Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Why Novo Nordisk Flew Almost 3% Higher on Friday
Key Points The company's leading product looked more attractive following price hikes by a competitor. Eli Lilly's Zepbound will become more expensive in the U.K. and likely throughout Europe subsequently. 10 stocks we like better than Novo Nordisk › An archrival's pricing move was seen as beneficial for Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) on Friday. As investors disseminated news of a dramatic increase in the cost of a product competing with the company's star drug, Wegovy, they pushed the Danish pharmaceutical company's share price up. It closed the day almost 3% higher during a session when the S&P 500 index ended up slumping by 0.3%. A rival's hikes The previous day, U.S. healthcare giant Eli Lilly announced that it was raising the prices of Zepbound -- a GLP-1 obesity drug that directly competes with Wegovy -- in the U.K. In doing so, the company indicated that it will follow suit in other European markets. The move follows a Trump administration push to reduce drug prices in America (or, at least, effectively level them across the world). In late July, the president sent letters to the CEOs of top U.S. drug companies, stating that they had until Sept. 29 to reduce the costs of certain medications. Failure to do so, the president wrote somewhat vaguely, would see the federal government "deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families." Although Novo Nordisk also received one of these letters -- there were 17 in all -- the company hasn't given any concrete indication that it intends to make adjustments similar to Eli Lilly's. Customer rebellion brewing? For the moment, then, Novo Nordisk enjoys a bit of an advantage, as there is inevitably customer backlash (and often defection to rival products) when a company hikes prices. We've yet to see how Trump's initiative will fully play out, however. So, personally, I don't think any investor should base their Novo Nordisk stance on the Eli Lilly development. Should you invest $1,000 in Novo Nordisk right now? Before you buy stock in Novo Nordisk, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Novo Nordisk wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $663,630!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,115,695!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,071% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Novo Nordisk Flew Almost 3% Higher on Friday was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Aumann AG (AUUMF) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Navigating Challenges with Strategic ...
Release Date: August 14, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Positive Points Aumann AG (AUUMF) maintained a strong profitability with a double-digit margin of 10.5% despite a challenging market environment. The company has a solid financial foundation with EUR 105 million in net cash, allowing flexibility to respond to market opportunities. Aumann AG (AUUMF) is strategically expanding its focus beyond the automotive industry into growth areas like aerospace, defense, and life sciences. The company is a technology leader in the e-mobility sector, providing comprehensive production solutions for electric vehicle components. Aumann AG (AUUMF) is benefiting from macroeconomic trends such as demographic changes and labor shortages, which drive demand for automation solutions. Negative Points Revenue for the first half of 2025 decreased by 23% compared to the previous year, aligning with the company's forecasted decline. Order intake dropped by 31% year over year, reflecting a challenging market environment and subdued investment climate in the automotive sector. The order backlog decreased significantly by 44% year over year, indicating potential future revenue challenges. The e-mobility segment saw a 21% decline in revenue, and order intake was 39% lower than the previous year. Market uncertainties, including geopolitical tensions and tariff dynamics, continue to impact the company's performance and investment climate. Q & A Highlights Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with AUUMF. Q: Can you provide details on the composition of the margins of your order intake and whether the weaker environment is affecting those margins? A: CEO Sebastian Roll explained that maintaining margins in the current environment is challenging, but they are managing to do so by securing better prices from suppliers. The order backlog even shows a slightly better margin situation, which helps maintain the expected 8 to 10% EBITDA margins. Q: How are China's rare earth magnet export controls affecting project timing with your customers? A: CEO Sebastian Roll noted that the export controls are prompting discussions with customers about alternative solutions, such as using winded rotors in traction cars. This shift could benefit Aumann as they provide precise winding solutions, which are becoming more desirable. Q: What is the impact of the current market environment on your revenue and profitability guidance for 2025? A: CFO Jan Henrik Pollitt stated that despite a challenging market environment, Aumann expects a decline in revenue to between 210 and 230 million for 2025. However, they anticipate maintaining a solid EBITDA margin of 8 to 10% due to a strong order backlog and flexible company structure. Q: How is Aumann's next automation segment performing, and what are the strategic growth areas? A: CEO Sebastian Roll highlighted that the next automation segment is growing, with rising order intake. Strategic growth areas include aerospace, clean tech, and life sciences, driven by increasing demand and investment in these sectors. Q: What are the key factors contributing to Aumann's strong operational performance despite lower revenues? A: CFO Jan Henrik Pollitt attributed the strong operational performance to strict cost management, capacity adjustments, and a good quality order backlog. These factors have helped maintain a double-digit EBITDA margin despite a 23% decline in revenue. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
