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Online travel giants to relax discount restrictions on rivals
Booking.com, Expedia and InterContinental Hotels have agreed to enable competitors to discount hotels following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading.
The companies were under investigation for striking deals which restricted small agents’ ability to offer discounted hotel rooms.
But Booking.com, Expedia and InterContinental Hotels have now given the OFT a formal commitment to relax restrictions so that online travel agents (OTAs) can discount room only hotel bookings.
Under the proposed commitments, OTAs would be free to use their commission revenue or margin to fund discounts to consumers who meet certain criteria.
The three-year investigation was initiated in September 2010, following a complaint submitted by a small online travel agent, see previous story.
Now the OFT wants feedback on the businesses’ proposals to relax their restrictions.
The OFT said it had limited the scope of its investigation to a small number of major companies, with a view to achieving a swift and effective outcome.
However, the investigation is likely to have wider implications as the alleged practices are potentially widespread in the industry, it said.
In the statement issued today, Ann Pope, senior director in the OFT’s Services, Infrastructure and Public Markets group, said:
"The OFT is consulting on whether these commitments offer an immediate and effective means of injecting some meaningful price competition into the online offering of room only hotel accommodation bookings where, in our provisional view, none may exist.
"Under the proposed commitments, OTAs would be able to offer discounts off hotel room bookings to qualifying consumers. The OFT would now like to hear the views of all interested parties before it makes its decision on whether to accept the commitments.’
Any person wishing to comment on the commitments should submit their views to the OFT by September 13, 2013.
Diane
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