{"id":318501,"date":"2025-08-05T00:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T00:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318501\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T00:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T00:51:09","slug":"thousands-of-hotels-in-europe-file-lawsuit-against-booking-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318501\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of hotels in Europe file lawsuit against Booking.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Alimat Aliyeva<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Booking.com, the world\u2019s leading online travel platform, is<br \/>\ncurrently facing one of the largest class-action lawsuits in the<br \/>\nhistory of the tourism industry, <strong>Azernews<\/strong><br \/>\nreports.<\/p>\n<p>More than 10,000 hotels across various European countries have<br \/>\njoined forces to file a lawsuit against Booking.com. These hotel<br \/>\nrepresentatives are seeking compensation for what they describe as<br \/>\nunfair terms and excessive commission fees imposed over the past 20<br \/>\nyears. The dispute centers on a landmark decision made by the<br \/>\nEuropean Court of Justice in the fall of 2024. The court ruled that<br \/>\nBooking.com\u2019s \u201cbest price\u201d clauses\u2014which prevented hotels from<br \/>\noffering lower rates on their own websites or through other<br \/>\nchannels\u2014violated European competition laws. These restrictions<br \/>\nseverely limited hotels\u2019 freedom to set their own prices and led to<br \/>\na significant decline in direct bookings. The plaintiffs claim that<br \/>\nbetween 2004 and 2024, they incurred financial losses amounting to<br \/>\nmillions of euros due to these practices.<\/p>\n<p>The ongoing class-action lawsuit is being handled in the<br \/>\nNetherlands, where Booking.com is registered, and is coordinated by<br \/>\nthe Hotel Claims Review Alliance. The lawsuit is supported by<br \/>\nHOTREC, the European association representing hotels, restaurants,<br \/>\nand caf\u00e9s, as well as over 30 national hotel associations,<br \/>\nincluding the German Hotel Association (IHA). To accommodate more<br \/>\nparticipants, HOTREC has extended the deadline for hotels wishing<br \/>\nto join the lawsuit until August 29.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this legal challenge, Booking.com remains a crucial<br \/>\nsales channel for many hotels, helping them reach millions of<br \/>\ntravelers worldwide. According to recent studies, Booking Holdings,<br \/>\nthe parent company of Booking.com, held a dominant market share of<br \/>\n71% in Europe and 72.3% in Germany in 2023. Meanwhile, the share of<br \/>\ndirect bookings in Germany declined by 8% during the same period,<br \/>\nfurther increasing hotels&#8217; reliance on online travel agencies.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth noting that while platforms like Booking.com have<br \/>\nrevolutionized the global travel industry by offering unprecedented<br \/>\nreach and convenience, some industry experts argue that the golden<br \/>\nage of such platforms may be nearing its end. With growing calls<br \/>\nfor fairer pricing practices and the rising popularity of direct<br \/>\nbooking incentives, the travel landscape is poised for significant<br \/>\nchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Alimat Aliyeva Booking.com, the world\u2019s leading online travel platform, is currently facing one of the largest class-action&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[12619,7503,12622,7502,1500,3085,12621,1700,2000,299,5187,12620,5387,285,12618,461,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-318501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-analytics","9":"tag-azerbaijan","10":"tag-azernews","11":"tag-baku","12":"tag-breaking-news","13":"tag-business-news","14":"tag-company-news","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-eu","17":"tag-europe","18":"tag-european","19":"tag-financial-news","20":"tag-oil-and-gas-news","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-socar","23":"tag-turkey","24":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114973421548994184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}