Online travel agent Booking.com has offered to scrap a practice that prevents hotels from giving discounts to rival online travel agencies.
The EC said it was coordinating the national probes, which have come about as a result of complaints by competitors who are worried about the effect the practice has on competition.
The EC said earlier this week: “The three national competition authorities have concerns that so-called “parity clauses” in contracts between online travel agent Booking.com and hotels may have anti-competitive effects, in breach of EU and national antitrust rules.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is also looking into the hotel online booking sector, after reversing a decision made earlier this year by its predecessor, the Office of Fair Trading to accept concessions from booking.com, Expedia and the InterContinental Hotels Group.
