Spain’s competition watchdog announced Tuesday that it had fined Dutch travel booking platform Booking $446.45 million for “abusing a dominant position” at the expense of the Spanish hotel sector.
A spokesperson for the agency told AFP that the fine was the highest ever imposed by the National Authority for Markets and Competition.
The agency said Booking “abused its dominant position” by “imposing a number of unfair commercial conditions on Spanish hotels.”
It noted that in doing so, the platform prevented “competition with other online travel agencies” as intermediaries “for booking hotels in the country,” in violation of European law.
This led the organization to impose two fines of $223.33 million each, one for unfair conditions imposed on hotels, and the other for restrictions imposed on other travel agencies.
The authority confirmed that “the total penalty amounts to $ 446.6 million”, explaining that it attached this fine to “a certain number of commitments” to ensure that these practices are “stopped” in the future.
The Dutch hotel booking platform announced the opening of this investigation in February, two weeks before the European Digital Markets Act (DMA) came into force.
It indicated that it faces a fine of $ 530 million (€ 489 million).
“Booking” indicated that it “will appeal this decision”, if it is taken, by questioning the right of the Spanish competition watchdog to impose this fine, in relation to the rules of the European Digital Markets Act applicable at the European level.
The company said in a statement that the Digital Markets Act “is the appropriate forum to discuss and evaluate the main concerns raised by the Spanish competition watchdog”.
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