More than 15,000 hotels across Europe have signed a class action lawsuit against the travel website Booking.com, reported the European industry association Hotrec. The deadline for participation was Friday.
With the lawsuit in the Netherlands, the hotels hope to receive compensation for "anti-competitive clauses" that Booking.com used for years. The popular website required hotels to display their cheapest price on the platform, preventing travellers from booking cheaper through the hotel's website.
In September of last year, the European Court of Justice told the platform to do away with the practice, stating that Booking can function perfectly well without it. In the wake of the European Digital Markets Act (DMA), legislation for digital companies, Booking.com abolished the practice.
The initiators of the class action plan to file the case in the Amsterdam court by the end of the year. According to the claim website, hotels could reclaim up to 30% or more of the commissions paid, plus interest.
Booking.com stated that the ECJ ruling did not mean that compensation claims were possible.
