The Chairman of the Office confirmed fine imposed on Booking.com for prohibited vertical agreements preventing competition
For the period from 1 May 2009 to 30 June 2015, Booking.com concluded prohibited vertical agreements with providers of short-term accommodation services within the territory of the Czech Republic, which led to distortion of competition on a service market of mediation of online reservation of short-term accommodation in the Czech Republic and on a market of provision of short-term accommodation services in the Czech Republic. At the same time, the trade between Member States of the European Union concerning providing the services of online reservation of short-term accommodation was potentially affected by conduct of Booking.com. The decision was based inter alia on an extensive investigation, during which the Office addressed hundreds of accommodation facilities.
The anticompetitive conduct of Booking.com consisted in obliging its contractual partners to comply with the so-called broad price and availability parity (MFN clauses). Therefore, the Booking.com should have been granted the same or better conditions regarding the price of accommodation and the amount of available rooms available for booking than those published on the web sites of the accommodation facility or at other on-line of off-line distribution channel of a contractual accommodation facility. The accommodation facilities were limited in their own pricing policy, because under these agreements, they were not allowed to offer better conditions (lower prices, higher availability) then the ones arranged with Booking.com. As a result of this, also none of the competitors of Booking.com could get better conditions from the accommodation facilities. By its conduct, Booking.com prevented competition in the market, which could otherwise lead to better prices and conditions being offered to the consumers looking for short-term accommodation.
Within the appeal proceeding, the Chairman rejected the objections of Booking.com concerning relevant market definition, demonstration of anticompetitive consequences or classification of the conduct under one of the statutory exemptions. The Chairman found the infringement being less serious in type, nevertheless not the minor one, and he confirmed the findings of the first-instance decision including the imposed fine.
Press Unit of the Office
19/093/HS035 – R0219/2018
2026-10-01 / The Office Imposed Record Fine of Nearly CZK 2 billion for Cartel Agreement among Cable Manufacturers The Office for the Protection of Competition (the Office) imposed fines totalling CZK 1,942,000,000 on four companies operating in the cable manufacturing and sales sector for a cartel agreement. One...
2026-09-24 / Pet Food Distributor Fined CZK 36 million Plaček Pet Products s.r.o., a distributor of premium pet food and pet supplies, was fined CZK 36.438 million by the Office for the Protection of Competition (the Office). From 17 January 2013 to 3 March...
2026-09-17 / Lesy ČR banned wood-chip exports and were imposed a fine of more than CZK 17 million The Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as the "Office") imposed a fine of CZK 17.268 million on the state-owned company Lesy ČR (Forests of the Czech Republic) for violating...
2026-09-11 / Pegasus Cleared to Acquire Czech Airlines, Office for the Protection of Competition Approved the Merger Subject to Conditions The Office for the Protection of Competition (the Office) has approved the acquisition of Czech Airlines (České aerolinie a.s.) — and subsequently the airline Smartwings — by the Turkish group...
2026-08-26 / Fines exceeding CZK 280 million imposed on O2 Czech Republic and SHERLOG Technology for cartel agreement SHERLOG Technology, a.s. and O2 Czech Republic a.s. (hereinafter referred to as “SHERLOG” and “O2”) entered into a cartel agreement in the area of vehicle and other means of transport monitoring...
2026-08-17 / Chairman of the Czech Competition Authority Definitively Confirms Fines for Meal Voucher Issuers’ Cartel Meal voucher issuers Pluxee Česká republika a.s., Edenred CZ s.r.o., and Up Česká republika s.r.o. are required to pay fines totalling CZK 279,152,000. The decision has now been definitively confirmed...
2026-06-30 / Annual Report 2025: CZK 500 Million in Antitrust Fines and Complex Public Procurement Cases The Czech Office for the Protection of Competition has published its annual report, summarising the results of its activities in 2025. In addition to protecting competition, the Office is responsible...
2026-05-06 / HP Tronic Faces Nearly CZK 40 Million Fine for Dictating Prices to Retailers The Office for the Protection of Competition has imposed a fine of CZK 38,971,000 on HP TRONIC Zlín, spol. s r.o. (hereinafter “HP TRONIC”), for entering into prohibited agreements restricting competition...