In December 2020, the Federal Antimonopoly Service completed consideration of an antitrust case on abuse of dominant position against the Booking.com service, which was initiated, among other things, on the basis of a petition filed by the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers Association, represented by Antitrust Advisory experts.
The regulator found that Booking.com B.V. imposed mandatory conditions on price and room parity, as well as terms of interaction with closed user groups, on hotels, inns and hostels. For hotels, this meant that they could not price their services in other sales channels as well as on their own website lower than on the Booking.com aggregator. Thus, the subject matter of the antitrust case included both broad and narrow price and room parity conditions.
The regulator recognised that such actions restricted competition in the market and also resulted in an infringement of the interests of hotels. The case required high quality antitrust expertise and involved various complex legal and economic issues.
However, Booking.com decided to appeal the FAS decision and order in court (case No. A40-19473/2021). The Association ‘Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers’ represented by Antitrust Advisory lawyers was also a party to this litigation. On 30 August 2021, the final hearing in this antimonopoly case was held, the Moscow Arbitration Court rejected Booking.com and found the FAS decision and prescription to be lawful and justified.
In addition to the FAS prescription, in August 2021, the regulator imposed a RUB 1.3bn negotiable fine on Booking.com.
Notably, the Russian case against Booking.com is one of many cases considered by European and other antitrust authorities.