COMPETITION PROTECTION IN THE TOURISM SECTOR IN ITALY 349 prohibition of anticompetitive agreements and the abuse of a dominant position. In the tourism sector, however, this tool was less used by ICA. In this regard, an important Authority intervention of 2014 focused on the online platforms for tourist services. This activity’s importance is directly linked with the fact that online platforms constitute a new channel that is significantly modifying the characteristics of international tourism and the way tourism businesses operate internationally39. Naturally, this revolution has also influenced the competitive dynamics. 3.10. Going into details, on 7 May 2014, the Authority started two investigative procedures, triggered by a complaint of a hotelier trade association (Federalberghi) and others. The aim was to verify whether Booking and Expedia, two leading groups in online accommodation booking services (so-called online travel agencies, or “OTA”), had violated the Article 101 TFEU through agreements that limited competition on price and booking conditions, and therefore the chance for users to find the best deals in the Italian market regarding online hotel booking services. The complaint criticised the use, by the two leading operators (hereinafter, “Parties”), of certain contractual clauses imposed on the Italian hotels that wished to be featured on their platforms. These clauses were: (i) rate and condition parity clauses (so-called “Most favoured nation” or “MFN”), aimed at forbidding hotels from offering better prices and conditions through other OTAs, and more generally through any other channel, both online and offline, under penalty of disqualification in the ranking systems of the Parties’ websites; (ii) the so-called “Best price guarantee” clauses, used by the Parties to guarantee their users the most competitive offer, and forcing the hotels to match the best offer that the user could find online, even when it implied partially refunding an existing booking40. Such clauses, plus the obligation for hotels of accepting high commissions, led the Authority to start the investigations. 39 G. Cipolla; Hotel Online Booking Sector: the Commitments of ‘Booking’ and the Most Favoured Nation Clauses. A Case Conducted in Cooperation with Other National Competition Authorities, Rivista Italiana di Antitrust 2015, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 175-180. 40 S. Heinz; Online booking platforms and EU competition law in the wake of the German Bundeskartellamt’s Booking.com infringement decision; Journal of European Competition Law & Practice 2016, vol. 7, no. 8, pp. 530- -536.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==