Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
The Spanish National Court suspended the 413 million-euro fine that was imposed by the National Market and Competition Regulator (CNMC) on Booking.com back in July 2024. The penalty against Booking.com is the most severe in CNMC’s history. The portal cites abuses of dominant position, as exemplified in the ban that it imposed on hotels who wanted to advertise prices lower than Booking.com’s on their website.
Booking.com had appealed its decision when the fine was announced. Booking.com has said that, following the suspension of the fine as a precaution, it is “satisfied with” the decision of National Court. Currently, the appeal continues to be considered. Booking.com is not in agreement with the CNMC initial decision. The company believes that this has a negative effect on partners as well as consumers.
The CNMC said that while it respected the judicial decision, “this was not a final or definitive decision, but a preventative measure”. It also stated that “the suspension is normal. The company is required to provide a security (generally, a bank guarantee), to ensure payment should its appeal be rejected”.
Long battle
Discussions began in October of 2022 when the CNMC opened a file for sanctions against Booking.com after two complaints from the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers and Madrid’s Hotel Business Association. The platform was accused of abusing it’s dominant position. Booking.com’s “unfair conditions” for Spanish hotels were considered to be a “commercial policy that could have an exclusionary effect on other online agencies”. CNMC said that these practices “exploited” the economic dependency of hotels with Booking.
Booking.com has a market share of between 70 and 90 percent in Spain, at least since 1 January 2019. The platform said that on the same day it received the sanctions, its commitment to Spain will remain “intact”.
