European Union: Issued blocking ruling in EU Commission investigation into Booking proposed acquisition of eTraveli

Description

Issued blocking ruling in EU Commission investigation into Booking proposed acquisition of eTraveli

On 25 September 2023, the EU Commission blocked Booking's proposed acquisition of eTraveli under the EU Merger Regulation. The decision was made due to concerns that the acquisition would strengthen Booking's dominant position in the European hotel online travel agency (OTA) market, potentially leading to higher costs for hotels and consumers. Despite Booking's proposed remedies, which included displaying multiple hotel offers from competing OTAs, the Commission found these measures inadequate to effectively address the competition concerns. The EU Commission states that Booking is a leading hotel OTA with a market share of over 60% in the European Economic Area (EEA), while eTraveli is a major provider of flight OTA services in Europe. The transaction would have allowed Booking to expand its travel services ecosystem, potentially diverting demand from more cost-effective sales channels to Booking and reinforcing network effects. This would have made it more challenging for competing OTAs to establish a customer base capable of supporting a hotel OTA business.

Original source

Scope

Policy Area
Competition
Policy Instrument
Merger control regulation
Regulated Economic Activity
platform intermediary: other
Implementation Level
supranational
Government Branch
executive
Government Body
competition authority

Complete timeline of this policy change

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2022-11-16
under deliberation

On 16 November 2022, the European Commission announced opening an investigation into the proposed a…

2023-06-09
under investigation

On 9 June 2023, the European Commission announced that it had sent Booking a Statement of Objection…

2023-09-25
in force

On 25 September 2023, the EU Commission blocked Booking's proposed acquisition of eTraveli under th…

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