Booking.com Announces Intent to Appeal Bundeskartellamt Ruling

Amsterdam (ots/PRNewswire) -

Today the German competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt
(BKartA) issued a prohibition decision against Booking.com, an
operating business of The Priceline Group [NASDAQ: PCLN], in respect
of its narrow MFN clauses in its agreements with accommodation
partners in Germany. Booking.com strongly contests the BKartA's
arguments and intends to appeal the BKartA's decision.

The BKartA is the sole competition authority in Europe to prohibit
narrow parity clauses in agreements between online travel companies
and hotels.

The national competition authorities (NCAs) in France, Italy,
Sweden, Ireland, the UK, Poland, Greece, Denmark, Hungary, the
Netherlands and Switzerland have all publicly stated that the changes
that Booking.com made to its agreements with hotels in July 2015 to
remove its 'wide price parity' and availability parity clauses
satisfied their competition concerns. These changes were made
pursuant to the narrow MFN commitments accepted by the French,
Italian and Swedish competition authorities in April 2015 which were
found to promote a more competitive environment for online travel
companies to the benefit of hotels and consumers.

There are no material characteristics of the German market that
distinguish it from the online travel company markets in France,
Italy and Sweden that justify the BKartA taking a different approach
from the NCAs in those countries and others across Europe.

"We believe this decision is flawed because it does not recognize
the immense benefits that online travel brands like Booking.com bring
to both consumers and accommodations," said Gillian Tans, President
of Booking.com. "Companies like ours bring transparency, choice and
value to global travellers by aggregating information for hundreds of
thousands of properties. We do not only save consumers time and
money, we serve as a highly cost-efficient marketing channel for most
hotels that could not otherwise afford to market their brand to
domestic and international consumers. Narrow parity was put in place
to ensure that consumers don't have to check hundreds of hotel
websites in order to get the best price, allowing sites like
Booking.com and others to achieve advertising efficiencies on behalf
of hotels."

Booking.com strongly believes it can continue to add value to its
hotel partners and offer customers the best booking experience.
Booking.com will continue to work with hotel partners to offer their
rooms at highly competitive prices. Booking.com has full confidence
that hotels will reward Booking.com with the best rates, conditions
and availability in return for the variety of customers it can
deliver. By being able to offer highly competitive rates, consumers
can conveniently and efficiently make a booking through Booking.com
with a hotel of their choice. The diversity and quality of hotels
available on Booking.com mean that a customer can always find a hotel
which meets their needs, for the right price. To show our confidence
in being able to offer the best price, Booking.com guarantees that it
will match the price difference ?under its Best Price Guarantee.

The reasoning and key conclusions in the BKartA's decision are not
only in direct conflict with the findings of the French, Italian and
Swedish NCAs (as supported or endorsed by a majority of the NCAs in
Europe). Booking.com believes that the BKartA has failed to conduct a
proper investigation of the competitive effects of the narrow MFN.
The BKartA decision to prohibit the narrow MFN is heavily reliant on
the conclusions in the HRS case - which was in relation to wide MFNs.
The BKartA has simply ignored, without any justification, the
substantial body of evidence submitted by Booking.com which shows
that the narrow MFN does not restrict competition and is actually
pro-competitive by bringing about substantial efficiency benefits for
hotels and consumers. Moreover, BKartA has failed to coordinate with
other NCAs and failed to ensure uniform application of competition
law across the EU.

Booking.com will, however, co-operate with the BKartA's order to
remove narrow MFNs from its contracts with German accommodations,
pending the outcome of Booking.com's appeal of the BKartA's decision.
Booking.com will waive enforcement of its existing narrow parity
provisions with German accommodations with immediate effect and will
amend its standard terms and other agreements with German
accommodations ultimately by 31 January 2016. Booking.com will
nonetheless work hard with all hotels to ensure the best customer
experience on Booking.com.

Elsewhere in Europe, Booking.com continues to retain its narrow
MFN for prices and booking conditions - meaning that hotels must
offer the same rates and booking conditions on Booking.com as they do
on their own direct online channels or as marketed by the hotel
online (e.g., hotel's own websites or meta search engine).

FOR PRESS INFORMATION:

Booking.com is the world leader in booking hotel and other
accommodations online. It guarantees the best prices for any type of
property - from small independents to five-star luxury. Guests can
access the Booking.com website anytime, anywhere from their desktops,
mobile phones and tablet devices, and they don't pay booking fees -
ever. The Booking.com website is available in 42 languages, offers
over 840,000 hotels and accommodations including more than 390,000
vacation rental properties and covers over 83,000 destinations in
221+ countries and territories worldwide. It features over 65 million
reviews written by guests after their stay, and attracts online
visitors from both leisure and business markets around the globe.
With over 17 years of experience and a team of over 10,000 dedicated
employees in 173+ offices worldwide, Booking.com operates its own
in-house customer service team, which is available 24/7 to assist
guests in their native languages and ensure an exceptional customer
experience.

Established in 1996, Booking.com B.V. owns and operates
Booking.com(TM), and is part of The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN).
Follow us on Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest, like us on Facebook, or
learn more at http://www.booking.com.

Booking.com Public Relations: mediarelations@booking.com

Priceline Group Public Relations: Leslie Cafferty -
leslie.cafferty@pricelinegroup.com

ots Originaltext: Booking.com B.V.
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

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