FAS fined Booking.com service 1.3 billion rubles

The Antimonopoly Service of Russia has fined the Booking.com accommodation selection service for 1.3 billion rubles. The FAS considered that the company "abused its dominant position in the Russian market."

According to the agency in an official release, the service imposed a turnover fine on the Dutch company Booking.com BV, which operates the service of the same name. The FAS found that the company "imposed on hotels, hotels, hostels the terms of the contract on the need to provide and comply with the parity of prices and rooms, as well as the conditions for interaction with closed user groups."

From the FAS release

For hotels, this meant that they could not price their services in other sales channels lower than on the Booking.com aggregator. The FAS Russia found that such actions limit competition in the market, and also lead to infringement of the interests of hotels.

• Initially, the Opora Rossii business association complained about the service back in 2019. Russian entrepreneurs have argued that hotel price parity is an anti-competitive business practice, especially given that hotels must pay a 25% commission to the service in order to display the best price on the platform above others. At the end of 2019, the FAS initiated an antitrust case against the service.