Hotels listed by online travel giant Booking.com in Europe are now free to offer better rates elsewhere, the European Commission said Thursday as new rules on the platform came into force.
The EU in May added the Dutch platform to its list of digital companies big enough to fall under its landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA), giving it six months to prepare for compliance with the tougher competition rules.
The rules aim to level the playing field in the digital market, ensuring EU users have more options when choosing products such as web browsers and search engines.
In practice, this means that “hotels, car rentals and other service providers using Booking.com are now free to offer different (including better) prices and conditions on their own website or other channels than on Booking.com,” said a commission statement.
“Booking is not allowed to…
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