Booking can no longer use hotels’ lower prices on other channels to access Sponsored Benefit

Booking.com has changed how the Sponsored Benefit program operates in the European Economic Area and no longer uses the prices displayed by hotels on their own websites or on other platforms to determine eligibility. The changes follow dialogue with the European Commission regarding the application of the Digital Markets Act and aim to ensure that hotels can offer different rates outside Booking.com without being disadvantaged in the platform’s commercial programs.

Booking.com no longer uses the prices hotels offer outside the platform to determine whether they can benefit from the Sponsored Benefit program in the European Economic Area. The change was introduced following regulatory dialogue with the European Commission regarding compliance with the Digital Markets Act and removes one of the last situations in which information about external rates could influence a hotel’s participation in a commercial program of Booking.com.

1. Booking.com no longer checks prices outside the platform to determine whether a property may be eligible for Sponsored Benefit.

2. Under the Sponsored Benefit program, Booking.com may reduce the displayed price for the customer and cover the difference, while the hotel receives the amount corresponding to the rate it set, and the agreed commission remains unchanged.

3. External prices are not used either for the default ranking of properties or for eligibility in the Genius, Preferred, and Preferred Plus programs in the European Economic Area.

4. Booking.com has removed the “competitive” and “non-competitive” labels associated with price comparisons from the Extranet and is providing hoteliers with more information about how the programs and ranking work.

5. The changes are related to the obligation under the Digital Markets Act that prohibits Booking.com from restricting accommodation providers’ freedom to offer different prices or conditions on other channels.

The issue concerns the freedom of hotels and other accommodation providers to decide how they set their rates on their own website or on competing platforms. The Digital Markets Act prohibits a gatekeeper from imposing parity clauses or other measures with equivalent effect whereby a company would be discouraged from offering better conditions outside the dominant platform. In Booking.com’s case, this means that a hotel must be able to display, for example, a lower rate on its own website without that decision affecting its position or access to Booking’s commercial programs.

Booking.com had already removed contractual parity requirements in 2024 from the terms applicable to accommodation providers in the European Economic Area. At that time, the platform also removed external prices from the eligibility criteria for Genius, Preferred, and Preferred Plus. The Commission states that Booking.com had not previously used these external rates for the default ranking of properties either, but one relevant exception still existed: the Booking Sponsored Benefit program.

Sponsored Benefit operates through a discount funded by Booking.com. The platform may display a lower price to the customer than the rate set by the accommodation and cover the difference itself, so that the hotel receives the value corresponding to the rate it offered, while the agreed commission does not change. Until the changes in September, information about the prices offered by the same property outside Booking.com could be taken into account when the platform determined potential eligibility for this benefit.

This use of external prices has been eliminated for all properties in the European Economic Area. A hotel that offers a better rate on its own website or on another platform should not, for this reason, lose the opportunity to benefit from Sponsored Benefit. The Commission presents the change as the result of regulatory dialogue with Booking.com and feedback received from the tourism sector as part of oversight of compliance with the parity obligation established by the Digital Markets Act.

The changes also move toward greater transparency. Booking.com now provides properties with more detailed data, including at the individual booking level, about the effects of Sponsored Benefit on bookings. For the Genius, Preferred, and Preferred Plus programs, the platform provides additional explanations about the benefits offered, eligibility criteria, how performance scores work, geographical comparisons between properties, and the circumstances in which participation in a program may be suspended.

The Commission also insisted on how information about hotels’ prices on other channels is presented to hoteliers. Booking.com may continue to display information obtained by scanning external prices in the Extranet, but the platform now explains that this information is for informational purposes and is used neither for the default ranking nor for eligibility in the commercial programs mentioned. In the same context, the “competitive” and “non-competitive” labels were removed to avoid giving the impression that Booking.com expects a hotel to align its prices on other channels with those displayed on the platform.

Booking.com is also expected to update the information about the ranking mechanism. The platform has expanded the explanations available in Partner Hub regarding the factors used for the default order of results and clarified that prices found outside Booking.com are not a ranking criterion. This clarification is also expected to be reflected in an update to the general terms applicable to partners.

The economic significance of the rule is linked to the costs of online distribution. When a hotel obtains a booking directly through its own website, it no longer pays the commission associated with an intermediary platform. The possibility of using this saving to offer the customer a lower price creates competition both between hotels and the platforms through which they sell, and among booking platforms.

The same logic applies to prices offered through other online travel agencies. A provider may decide to offer a different rate or other commercial conditions on a competing platform from those on Booking.com, without Booking.com being able to use this choice to disadvantage it through a mechanism that would have the same effect as a parity clause.

The obligation stems from Article 5(3) of the Digital Markets Act. Booking Holdings was designated a gatekeeper for the Booking.com online intermediation service, and the regulation’s relevant obligations have applied to it since 14 November 2024. The regulation does not require hotels to offer lower rates elsewhere, but gives them the freedom to independently decide on prices, availability, inventory, and other commercial conditions on different channels.

The changes announced now do not represent a decision by which the Commission formally finds an infringement and imposes a fine. The Commission describes them as changes implemented by Booking.com following regulatory dialogue regarding compliance with the DMA. They are distinct both from the initial ban on parity clauses, which is already applicable, and from other competition investigations or proceedings that may concern the company.

The Commission explicitly states that the voluntary changes made by Booking.com do not affect proceedings currently underway in the Member States. The national competition authorities in Greece, Italy, and Spain are mentioned among the institutions with which the European executive is cooperating regarding Booking.com’s practices, and any conclusions from those proceedings remain legally separate from the changes described in the context of applying the Digital Markets Act.

For hoteliers, the practical effect is that information showing that a room is offered more cheaply outside Booking.com can no longer be used to assess eligibility for Sponsored Benefit. Together with the prior removal of parity criteria from the other programs and contractual terms, the change extends to internal commercial mechanisms the principle that properties must be able to set their prices independently on each sales channel.

https://2eu.brussels/ro/news/booking-nu-mai-poate-folosi-preturile-mai-mici-ale-hotelurilor-de-pe-alte-canale-pentru-accesul-la-sponsored-benefit