2024-02-22 22:50:19
The Spanish competition watchdog CNMC wants to fine Booking.com’s parent company 490 million euros for abusing its dominance in the market. Booking.com wants to oppose the punishment.
The fine has not yet actually been handed out, but the internet company for hotel bookings has already been told that the financial penalty is coming.
The Spanish regulator had been investigating Booking.com for some time because there was suspicion of unfair practices towards some hotels and travel organizations in the country.
“We are disappointed with the CNMC’s draft decision and strongly disagree with its findings,” a Booking.com spokesperson said following earlier reporting by The Financial Times (FD). “We intend to appeal this unprecedented decision in Spain if it becomes final.”
It is the second financial setback for Booking.com in a short time. At the end of last month it was announced that the company must join a pension fund for the travel industry in the Netherlands.
The group resisted this and sees itself primarily as a technology platform. But the court in The Hague disagreed. That ruling also resulted in additional costs of hundreds of millions of euros.
Both setbacks were included in the quarterly figures that parent group Booking Holdings presented on Thursday. As a result, the company saw its quarterly profit plummet by 82 percent compared to a year earlier, to $ 222 million.
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