A collective action is launched to unite French and Spanish hoteliers considering themselves injured by Booking – Liberation
The online rental giant is in the sights. Two law firms want to federate hoteliers in France and Spain so that they get compensation « For their losses related to excessive commissions » of The Dutch platform Bookingsaid on Tuesday April 22, one of the lawyers on the initiative of this action, Marc Barennes.
To launch their action, the Eskariam firms in Spain and Geradin Partners in Paris are based in particular on a recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, of September 2024, which calls into question the « Parity clauses » imposed by Booking. These provisions prevent « Hotels and other hosts to offer lower prices or better conditions on other sales channels, thus restoring their commercial freedom »said a lawyer for lawyers. They also refer to decisions by the Spanish and Italian competition authorities « Who question the illicit practices of Booking.com ».
In France, the two firms launched a website (Actioncollectivehotel.fr) which aims to collect the data of hoteliers who used Booking between 2015 and 2024 in order to assess their potential damage, highlighting the prospect of obtaining « Repair for excessive commissions » paid to the online booking platform.
“Independent hotels could receive dozens, even hundreds of thousands of euros in compensation. For chains, damages amount to millions of euros »can we read on this site. The law firm had the total losses of hoteliers linked to Booking in France evaluated at 1.5 billion euros, according to Marc Barennes. As part of Digital market legislation (DMA)Booking is one of the tech giants Subject to the European Union to new stricter competition rules.
The platform can no longer force European hoteliers to offer their best prices on its site. In addition, Marc Barennes stresses that being an actor particularly scrutinized by the European Commission within the framework of the DMA, Booking cannot afford to take reprisals against hoteliers deciding to request compensation. The appeals will be funded by a dispute financing company which will be remunerated with a percentage of the allowances obtained in the event of victory (between 25 and 30 %) and the hoteliers will therefore have nothing to pay, according to the lawyer.
Discussions are underway with other firms to extend the initiative to other countries, including Italy and Portugal, « in order to expand European coverage and build a united legal front against Booking.com ” detail lawyers on the site dedicated to action. In France, Marc Barennes would like to be able to seize the Commercial Court by the end of October. Moreover, if employers’ organizations do not have official statistics on the share of hotels using Booking in France, they regularly point the finger The domination of the platform for hotel reservation.
In Europe, reservations directly with the hotel represented only 33 % of the online turnover of hotels in 2024, the rest coming from platforms like Booking or Expedia, according to data from the company specializing in hotel technologies D-EDGE. And according to the Statista data platform, Booking is the most used platform in France to book a hotel or tourist accommodation, in front of Airbnb.
Marc Barennes is also the initiative of a similar action in the hotel and restaurant sector: that between restaurateurs to the emitters of restaurant titles, sanctioned for anti-competitive practices in France. Some 8,000 points of sale joined this procedure announced in 2021, and delayed due to difficulties in accessing documents to assess the damage, paper slips dating back several years, explains the lawyer who conducts this action via his company Brandeis FIDUCIE. « We hope to be able to file the compensation request before the end of the year »he specifies.
