Spain’s competition watchdog has launched a fresh antitrust investigation into online travel platform Booking.com, homing in on unfair trading conditions and commercial policies.
The National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) said Monday that it would examine whether Booking.com imposed unfair trading terms on Spanish hotels and whether its policies may have had “exclusionary effects” on other online travel agencies.
The probe comes following complaints filed by the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers and the Regional Hotel Association of Madrid. If Booking.com’s actions are found to have constituted an abuse of dominance, then it may face fines of up to 10 percent of its worldwide turnover.
“We have and will continue to partner with the CNMC on their questions regarding Booking.com Spain,” the company said. “Booking.com has always and will continue to work collaboratively with our accommodation partners in the travel ecosystem, which has only recently seen signs of recovery as we enter a further uncertain future with the global economic environment. We continue to work tirelessly to secure and deliver much needed demand for our accommodation partners, helping them fill their rooms every day.”
The CNMC has 18 months to reach a final decision on whether the company violated competition rules.
This article has been updated.
