Booking.com, an operating business of The Priceline Group has announced it will waive enforcement of its existing wide parity provisions with German accommodations with immediate effect and will amend its standard terms and other agreements with German accommodations by 1 July 2015 to be consistent with the binding commitments given to the French, Italian and Swedish National Competition Authorities.
As a result, German hotels, and consumers booking at German hotels, will get the same benefits as their counterparts in France, Italy and Sweden. Under the new provisions, Booking.com will abandon its price, availability and booking conditions parity provisions with respect to other online travel agencies. This will create an environment that supports increased transparency and competition among online travel agencies which will ultimately benefit consumers, as well as hoteliers, by encouraging properties to offer different pricing and booking policies (e.g. free cancellation, WIFI, breakfast) through different online travel agencies.
Booking.com intends to implement these commitments throughout the European Economic Area and is working with all other European National Competition Authorities towards this objective. Booking.com is seeking to achieve an industry wide solution which all major online travel agencies and European Competition Authorities will endorse.
