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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Booking.com targeted as hotels plan Dutch damages claims over price clauses
By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - could face Dutch damages claims running into millions of euros after 26 hotel associations across Europe teamed up to sue the company following an EU court judgment last year over its price curbs on hotels. Europe's top court ruled that restrictions against hotels offering lower rates on their websites or on rival sites are unnecessary and could reduce competition, but also that such clauses are not anti-competitive under EU laws. Such parity clauses, which are included in contracts between online booking sites and hotels, have triggered complaints from competitors and scrutiny from regulators across Europe concerned about fewer choices for consumers. The case came before the European Court of Justice after applied for a declaration in a Dutch court on whether parity clauses are valid, prompting the latter to seek guidance from the top court. HOTREC, which represents 47 member associations in the hospitality sector in 36 European countries, said it was backing the hotel associations' damages claims. "European hoteliers have long endured unfair conditions and inflated costs. Now is the time to stand together and seek redress," HOTREC president Alexandros Vassilikos said in a statement. said it had not been informed of any European-wide legal action taken by the hotels and that their conclusions about the court ruling are incorrect. "The ECJ judgement relates specifically to questions asked by the Amsterdam District Court in relation to litigation between and some German hotels disputing the legality of price parity clauses in Germany between 2006 and 2016," a spokesperson said. "The court did not conclude that German parity price clauses were anti-competitive or had an effect on competition. The Amsterdam Court will now need to make a decision specifically on German parity clauses only." Hotels have until July 31 to sign up to the damages litigation. The hotel associations endorsing the action are in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.
RTÉ News
5 days ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
IHF to join legal action against Booking.com
The Irish Hotels Federation has announced it is joining with hotels from across Europe to support a landmark collective legal action against over its restrictions against hotels offering lower rates on their websites or on rival sites. It follows a judgment last September from the Court of Justice of the European Union indicating that parity clauses, which were contractual terms that prevented hotels from offering lower prices or better availability through other channels, violated EU competition rules. These parity clauses were inserted into contracts between online booking sites and hotels, and the practice triggered complaints by competitors and scrutiny from regulators across Europe concerned about fewer choices for consumers. Hotels are now seeking substantial financial compensation for damages resulting from what they claim were inflated commission rates charged by The collective legal action is being supported by the European hospitality association (HOTREC) as well as more than 25 national hotel associations across Europe. It is being brought before the Amsterdam District Court in the Netherlands, where is headquartered. The IHF estimates that over 900 Irish hotels and guesthouses are eligible to join this legal action, having been negatively impacted by use of anti-competitive parity clauses that were in effect from 2004 to 2024. The IHF said these clauses "placed hotels and their customers at a significant competitive disadvantage by suppressing price competition between and other online platforms" and that "this resulted in hotels being charged inflated levels of commissions". The clauses also restricted hotels from offering better prices or availability on their own websites, limiting direct sales and autonomy. Under EU competition law, affected hotels may be eligible to recover a significant portion of commissions paid to the platform between 2004 to 2024, in addition to interest. IHF Chief Executive Paul Gallagher described the legal action as "unprecedented". He added that the 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. "We see this as an important opportunity to send a strong message to online booking platforms that unfair business practices will not go unchallenged." In its judgment last year, the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the EU said there was no evidence to justify the parity clauses. "It has not been established that price parity clauses, whether wide or narrow, first, are objectively necessary for the implementation of that main operation and, second, are proportionate to the objective pursued by it," judges said. They said the restrictions may reduce competition between various hotel reservation platforms, force out small platforms and new entrants and do not appear to be necessary to ensure economic viability. However, the court also said the clauses could not be considered anti-competitive under EU competition laws. At the time, Booking Holdings (which owns the brand) expressed disappointment with the ruling. The company said it the parity clauses "were necessary and proportionate to the relationship between accommodation partners and and that operates in a competitive market". The IHF is in communication with all affected hotels and guesthouses in Ireland in relation to the next steps for joining the collective legal action. The case is being led and handled by the same competition lawyers, litigators and competition economists who worked on the case that led to the ECJ's judgment. In addition to the IHF, the action is supported by national hotel associations from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Inside Booking.com: Ousted CEOs, Power Struggles and Local Backlash
Beyond the press releases and public appearances by Booking Holdings executives, what was really going on at Amsterdam headquarters behind closed doors – including during monthly Freaky Fridays booze-fests? Three Dutch investigative journalists with the newspaper NRC tell the story in the 2021 book, "The Machine." Originally published in Dutch, it has received little mention in English-language press and the authors say it is set to be adapted into a fictional TV show on a Dutch public broadcasting channel. 'Booking is one of the few European tech companies that turned into a global success," one of the journalists, Stijn Bronzwaer, told Skift recently. "Everyone is familiar with the website, but no one knows the people and the stories behind this company. We felt it was time to reconstruct this piece of internet history.' The other authors were Merijn Rengers and Joris Kooiman. The book makes several references to Skift's oral history of published in 2016, but goes much deeper in its reporting. It details history from its founding in Amsterdam in 1996; the tensions between the American and Dutch employees, and then between the Dutch and the Brits; takes you behind closed doors where one CEO gets fired and another is forced to resign; documents local backlash and strategic decisions. Booking Holdings, which learned that the book was being written before publication, fact-checked it, Bronzwaer said. Booking Holdings did not comment on the book as a whole, but has not disputed key findings. Following are highlights from "The Machine:" Gillian Tans, who was CEO of and among the highest-profile female executives in online travel, was a member of what the book calls the "Dutch Mafia," an informal name for the group of employees who built from scratch and turned it into the largest hotel booking site in the world. In June 2019, Tans had just finished running a 2-day meeting with managers at the Hotel van Oranje Noordwijk in the Netherlands. At one of the sessions, according to "The Machine," Glenn Fogel – her boss as CEO of parent company Booking Holdings – tore into management. Fogel argued that growth had stagnated. He criticized what he saw as lethargic workplace culture and noted the parent company had been forced to delay an earnings call because of questions about numbers. He also emphasized that had to start cooperating with sister brands, such as Priceline, Agoda, and Kayak. Later, in a conference room at the hotel, Fogel told Tans that the board had lost confidence in her, and that she was being fired. Fogel would add to his duties to become CEO of Tans later accepted an offer to stay on for a year in a newly created and largely ceremonial position of chairwoman. The firing came as a shock to Tans, who felt she had met her targets at during a time when the company was becoming more difficult to manage: According to "The Machine," there had been claims of employee burnout and sexual harassment-related issues, some of which occurred at company-sponsored "Freaky Friday" gatherings at Amsterdam pubs. Tans left the company in June 2021 after 20 years. Tans didn't respond to Skift's request to comment. Here's Tans being interviewed at Skift Global Forum in New York in 2016: In April 2016, Darren Huston was forced to resign as CEO of and the Priceline Group (as Booking Holdings was then known) following a "personal relationship" with an employee who did not report to him. "The Machine" reported the extramarital affair was with an employee at one of the Group's brands, Agoda, and shed light on the board's internal deliberations. The board had grappled with Huston's affair since earlier in the year. Huston acknowledged the relationship, which was a violation of the company's code of ethics. But the code didn't clearly state what the punishment should be. An early draft of a press release would have Huston apologizing publicly; he would keep his CEO job but lose his 2015 bonus under this scenario. Ultimately, however, negotiations broke down and the company announced that he resigned because of "a personal relationship that Mr. Huston had with an employee of the Company who was not under his direct supervision." Priceline Group chairman Jeffery Boyd became interim CEO, and Tans became CEO of Huston, who went on to become founder and CEO of BlackPines Capital and is chairman of Skyscanner, declined to comment for this story. "The Machine" details execs' resistance to cooperating with other Booking Holdings brands. Until Fogel took over in 2019, there had been little sharing of data, resources or supply out of fear that it would dilute the brand and slow growth. 'Logical as cooperation may have looked to the group, none of its subsidiaries was willing to sacrifice any of its autonomy," the book says, adding that many of the brands were still headed by founders. There are many examples in the book of local backlash against practices. For example, one of the largest companies in the Netherlands, took advantage of the Innovation Tax credit, which saved saved the company some $2.5 billion in taxes over 10 years starting in 2011. Its acceptance of pandemic relief funds from the Dutch and other governments also became a flash point. 'By pocketing 100 billion euros in largely Dutch state aid and then cutting thousands of jobs while at the same time handing out executive bonus packages worth 34 million dollars, Booking had put itself in the middle of a perfect publicity storm," the authors wrote. A Booking Holdings spokesperson told Skift last week the company accepted pandemic relief to keep people employed as long as possible, and did so longer than many competitors. By mid-2021, Booking Holdings stated that it had repaid about $137 million of the Covid-related government assistance it received, and another $19 million after that. had success with marketing tactics that made hotels seem in high demand, with promotional language such as "only 5 rooms left" or "last booked: 15min. ago." The book's authors claim that hotels sometimes manipulated these numbers by limiting the number of available rooms they gave to Competition authorities in the UK and the EU reached agreements with major online travel agencies in 2019 and 2021, respectively, to eliminate many of these practices. In early 2016, a employee on the digital security team discovered that an intruder based in Virginia had stolen customer pin codes used for to change or modify reservations. The employee suspected that this breach was tied to a U.S. intelligence agency. Booking had believed for years that its reservations data had been used by intelligence services to monitor security targets. But did not disclose the intrusion to customers or the Dutch Data Protection Authority because there was no login or credit card information stolen, and the company at the time was not legally required to do so. officials have touted the brand as a technology company that happens to sell travel, but the book describes a tech stack that was very out of date. Up until 2019, at least, was using its original booking engine as a foundation, and many of its coders were still using the Perl programming language. Even then, many considered Perl a relic, and some new programmers didn't want to code with it. A/B testing was so pervasive across departments at that roughly 1,000 tests could be running simultaneously. Annual employee bonuses and promotions were often tied to A/B test activities. As a result, the book claims some employees inflated test results. Most of the credit for Booking's success has gone to former Priceline Group CEO Jeffery Boyd and Fogel, who orchestrated the acquisition of Kees Koolen, who served as CEO from 2008-2011, was behind the idea to ride startup Google and search engine marketing to industry out-performance, and injected an intensity and single-minded focus on metrics that had much to do with laying the groundwork for the position that Booking Holdings holds today. "The Machine" quotes one associate of Koolen saying about him: 'If you're cooperating on the same goal and put in your best effort, he is a good person to have on your team. If you get in the way or won't go along with the plan, that changes. He'll go remote and stop being warm and exuberant. He also has the ability to make tough decisions, which can take you far.' The book is available outside the U.S. here, and also as an ebook on Amazon, Apple Books and Kobo. People in the U.S. and elsewhere who want information on buying the book can email co-author Stijn Bronzwaer here. Get breaking travel news and exclusive hotel, airline, and tourism research and insights at 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
Skift
6 days ago
- Business
- Skift
Inside Booking.com: The Story of Ousted CEOs, Internal Tensions
These journalists pierced the prevailing narratives about what was actually going on behind the scenes at Beyond the press releases and public appearances by Booking Holdings executives, what was really going on at Amsterdam headquarters behind closed doors – including during monthly Freaky Fridays booze-fests? Three Dutch investigative journalists with the newspaper NRC tell the story in the 2021 book, "The Machine." Originally published in Dutch, it has received little mention in English-language press and the authors say it is set to be adapted into a fictional TV show on a Dutch public broadcasting channel. 'Booking is one of the few European tech companies that turned into a global success," one of the journalists, Stijn Bronzwaer, told Skift recently. "Everyone is familiar with the website, but no one knows the people and the stories behind this company. We felt it was time to reconstruct this piece of internet history.' The other authors were Merijn Rengers and Joris Kooiman. The book makes several references to Skift's oral history of published in 2016, but goes much deeper in its reporting. It details history from its founding in the Amsterdam in 1996; the tensions between the American and Dutch employees, and then between the Dutch and the Brits; takes you behind closed doors where one CEO gets fired and another is forced to resign; documents local backlash and strategic decisions. Booking Holdings, which learned that the book was being written before publication, fact-checked it, Bronzwaer said. Booking Holdings did not comment on the book as a whole, but has not disputed key findings. Following are highlights from "The Machine:" Gillian Tans Got Fired as CEO of on June 20, 2019 Gillian Tans, who was CEO of and among the highest-profile female executives in online travel, was a member of what the book calls the "Dutch Mafia," an informal name for the group o
The Star
26-05-2025
- The Star
Booking.com scams: Watch for these fake emails targeting users
Consumer advocates advise customers to never enter credit card details on websites linked to in a message, even if these links are sent using the chat. — Pixabay BERLIN/VIENNA: "Your booking has not been fully confirmed." The message is asking for you to verify your payment to keep the accommodation you've just booked. It might seem legit, but it's one of a number of scams targeting holidaymakers using the travel agency website. The scam messages contain a link leading to a fake website that looks like the original page, where customers are asked to enter their data. They're told that if the booking is not reconfirmed within a few hours, it'll be cancelled. Once the customer enters their credit card data the cybercriminals steal it. What's particularly perfidious is that, according to consumer protection website Watchlist Internet, contact is often made not via email or text message, but using the chat feature on – the official communication channel between accommodation and guest. How is this possible? The criminals have probably obtained the login credentials of the hotel or vacation rental operators and are thus able to log into their accounts, view bookings there and then contact customers over chat. It's understandable why victims have fallen for it without suspecting anything being amiss. Consumer advocates advise customers to never enter credit card details on websites linked to in a message, even if these links are sent using the chat. If in doubt, contact the hotel or accommodation by phone. advice What does say about this? The booking platform advises that "should a customer have concerns about a payment message, we recommend carefully reviewing the payment terms listed on the accommodation's listing page and in the booking confirmation." Customers are encouraged to report any suspicious messages or concerns about an accommodation to customer service. The website emphasises that as a general rule, no legitimate transaction requires a customer to provide sensitive information such as their credit card details using email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, or phone, or to make a payment that deviates from the original booking terms. In addition to the scam involving bogus booking confirmations, Watchlist Internet also warns against fake listings on which often contain strikingly cheap offers. A clear warning sign is that the booking can't be completed on the platform. Instead, you're asked to contact the accommodation owners or letting agency using WhatsApp or email. Then you'll be asked to transfer the money to complete the booking and of course that's the last you'll see of it. says it takes "extensive, strict measures" to protect customers and partners from fraud, including using detection systems that are constantly being improved. The site says that in 2023, 1.5 million phishing-based fake reservations were detected and blocked and in 2024 the number fell to 250,000. – dpa/Tribune News Service
