Spain’s antitrust enforcement authority announced a fine of 413 million euros on online travel booking company Booking.com. The reasoning behind the fine is the abuse of its dominant position over the past five years.

Spain’s National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) audited the company and found at least two violations, prompting fines.

How the investigation began – What abuses were found

In 2022, complaints were made by the Association of Spanish Hotel Managers and the Professional Association of Hoteliers of Madrid, accusing Booking of forced hotels to offer prices equal to or lower than those of the platform itself and that it charged excessive commissions.

Subsequently, an audit was carried out by Spain’s Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) and two abuses were found from at least January 1, 2019 until today. In particular, Booking seems to have imposed several unfair trade terms in hotels located in Spain that use the booking mediation services, taking advantage of its market share (from 70% to 90%). Thus, it limited the competition from other online travel agencies offering the same services.

According to the CNMC, Booking.com forces Spanish hotels to bring legal proceedings in the Netherlands and not in Spain in the event of a conflict of interest.

To maintain its high market share, Booking.com favors hotels that bring it higher fees, limiting the ability of alternative service providers to convince hotels to work with them.

For the above violations, the CNMC imposed two fines of 206.62 million euros on Booking.com.

Booking.com announced its intention to appeal to the Spanish National Court against the final resolution announced by the CNMC.