News & Stories

Amsterdam/Berlin. Booking.com surprised the German hotel industry with the announcement that it will voluntarily relinquish its parity clauses. The German International Hotel Association states that this is only half the truth and hits out against the OTA.

Brussels. The massive criticism by the HOTREC European umbrella organisation regarding the draughts of the Package Travel Directive had encountered open ears in Brussels during the final stages of the consultations. The directive now encompasses fewer hotel offers than had been feared.

Paris/Rome. Is this a remake of David and Goliath? Are European hoteliers really winning against the giant Booking.com? Well, it’s discussable. While many welcome the news with satisfaction, experts keep on warning about the power Booking.com will still have over hoteliers. Many are not fooled by this settlement. For them, Booking will certainly penalize hotels giving other online agencies better prices and at the end hoteliers will have to side Booking again in order to maintain a decent RevPar. The cartel offices of France, Italy and Sweden with their decision different to the German cartel office some weeks ago got the ball rolling again. The background and details about the special agreement for Booking.com.

Bonn. After HRS, it's now Booking.com's turn to attract the attention of competition authorities. The German Federal Cartel Office has issued a warning to the booking platform due to its continued use of the best-price clause. This puts HRS and Booking.com on the same page; proceedings against Expedia are still ongoing.

Vienna. Austria's Supreme Court has decided that combinations with the prefix "Mc" in the hospitality and catering industry are the preserve of the fast food chain McDonald's. McDonald's lawyers expect the case to have a precedential effect on German jurisprudence too.

Duesseldorf/Cologne. Last Friday, the Higher Regional Court in Duesseldorf dismissed the appeal of HRS against a ruling of the German Federal Cartel Office. Legally substantiated, best rate clauses have finally been prohibited in Germany. However, it remains open, when the cartel office will comment on the general business terms of Booking and Expedia. Until then, there will be distorted competitive relationships among the OTAs in Germany.

Rome. Just three days before Christmas the Italian Cartel Office adopted a measure penalizing TripAdvisor LLC and TripAdvisor Ital Srl to pay 500,000 euros for the publication "of deceptive information regarding the sources of reviews".

Brussels. Another day, another battle for European hoteliers. This time, it’s about the never-ending story of the Package Travel Directive. Last week, in the European Competitiveness Council, the EU governments agreed on a "general approach" on the reform of the directive as proposed by the Italian presidency of the EU.

Magdeburg. From 13 December 2014, German hoteliers face new bureaucracy - in this case from the EU: From this date, the new duty to provide allergy information enters into force. That is, of course, unless Germany enacts its own legislation or implementation regulation by then.

Offenbach. A disabled applicant applied for an opening in a company on two separate occasions: Initially, he explicitly made reference to his disability, though does not do so in the second application. In both cases, the applicant failed to secure employment. Can he now sue for discrimination? These were the facts considered by the 8th Senate of the German Federal Labour Court.