Hotels Escalate Long-Running Battle Against Booking.com's Pricing Rules

What began as a German court case is rapidly becoming an effort by hotels across Europe to seek financial damages from Booking.com’s for two decades of pricing practices.

Hotels have complained about Booking.com's contract terms related to pricing for about two decades, but their long-running dispute has shifted to seeking financial compensation for the practice. This effort by hotels to win damages appears to be gaining momentum.

Many trade groups last week said they backed legal claims against the online travel giant over its so-called rate parity clauses. These clauses typically prevented hotels from offering lower rates on their own websites or rival platforms than what they charged on Booking.com.

The online travel company, based in Amsterdam, has long defended the clauses as necessary to its business model, though it dropped them last year in Europe.

Here's the state of play in the long-simmering dispute.

Last week, 26 national hotel associations for the first time coordinated to argue that Booking.com stifled competition with rate parity clauses they say violated European Union competition law between 2004 and 2024 and to seek damages for affected hotels across Europe.

Booking.com's parent company Booking Holdings has consistently denied wrongdoing.

In 2024, the European Commission labeled Booking.com a "ga