504 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM 3.1. As of The execution date of this Consent Decree Term the Committed Party may not propose, require or enter into contracts with lodging providers which contain any of the parity conditions ser forth below. a) That require from their lodging providers any obligation of rate parity and / or booking conditions in relation to any other Online Booking Channel, except for those Online Booking Channels available to the general public and that are controlled, directly or indirectly, by the own lodging provider or its economic group. This exception also include fares publicly offered by such Online Booking Channels controlled by the lodging supplier (or its economic group) through Metasearch sites. (b) That require from their lodging providers any obligation of rate parity and / or booking conditions in relation to any other Online Booking Channel, except for those Online Booking Channels available to the general public and that are controlled, directly or indirectly, by the accommodation provider or its economic group. To avoid any doubts, this exception also includes the disclosure of Off-fine Reserve Channel rates publicly offered by the lodging provider (or its economic group) through any sites, including Metasearch Sites. (c) That require from their lodging providers any parity obligation of room availability. Moreover, they set forth, in their proposals, penalties applicable to the hypothesis of noncompliance with the Consent Terms, thus complying with the legal requirements for its approval. VII. CADE’S ANALYSIS VII.1. The Convenience and Opportunity of Proposals Once the compliance with the legal requirements was verified, the convenience and timeliness of the proposals submitted by the OTAs were examined, under two main aspects, their effectiveness in solving the competitive question investigated and the penalties for possible noncompliances. As to the effectiveness, in essence, the clause copied in the previous item represents the application of the parity clause in its restricted form, an obligation currently understood as the most adequate solution to remove the competition concerns arisen from the vertical restrictive conduct investigated and practised by the proponents.
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