The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) has signed a Collaboration Agreement with CCS Abogados to enable its 16,000 member companies to pursue legal claims for damages caused by Booking.com BV for the use of contractual clauses that violate Competition Law.
Recently, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a ruling declaring that the parity clauses Booking.com included in the contracts it signed with hotel and tourist accommodation companies violate Competition Law. The parity clauses prevent accommodation spaces marketed on Booking.com's website from being sold at a lower price through other online agencies and on the properties' own websites. If these clauses had not been used, due to greater competition between online agencies, the commission percentage Booking.com charges hotel companies would have been considerably lower than the one they have been applying. This important ruling is accompanied by the recent fine imposed by the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC).
In Spain, as is already happening in the rest of Europe, a refund of part of the commissions charged by Booking.com B.V. will be requested.
CEHAT has chosen CCS Abogados to represent Spanish companies wishing to file a claim. CCS is one of the largest Spanish law firms and specializes in claims for damages caused by violations of competition law. As an example of its experience in this area, CCS has handled claims against European manufacturers participating in the "truck cartel" sanctioned by the European Commission for 5,500 companies associated with the Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport (CETM) since 2018.
CCS Abogados will jointly manage the claim with the German law firm SGP Schneider Geiwitz, led by Volker Soyez, which has already litigated against Booking.com since 2013 in various proceedings in Germany, the Netherlands, and before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). SGP sued Booking.com in 2021 on behalf of the German Hotel Association and 2,000 hotel companies, and successfully obtained a ruling from the CJEU on September 19, 2024.
