Russia: Fine for Booking.com for abuse of dominance regarding price parity clauses

On 26 August 2021 the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) sanctioned the Dutch booking service provider Booking.com with a fine of RUB 1.3 billion (roughly 15 million EUR) turnover fine. The fine became necessary after Booking.com did not comply with the ruling that the FAS reached on 21 December 2020, when it ruled that Booking.com had violated antitrust rules. Specifically, clause 3 of part 1 of article 10 of the Law on the Protection of Competition was violated, the FAS stated. The investigation was originally opened on 31 December 2019 after the public organization Opora Rossii made a complaint about Booking.com with the agency earlier that year. In December 2020, the FAS ordered Booking.com to refrain from applying unfavourable price parity obligations in contracts with Russian hotels and hostels, as they represent an abuse of the dominance that Booking.com holds in the market. Booking.com had until February 2021 to stop implementing unfavourable contractual clauses with Russian hotels and hostels but did not comply. The punishment is made available to the FAS by part 2 of article 14.31 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.