The European Commission blocked the merger deal between Booking and ETraveli services – Kommersant
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Today, September 25, European Commission announced on a ban on the merger of the online hotel booking service Booking and the Swedish company ETraveli, which owns several online booking services for airline tickets. According to the regulator, such a merger would strengthen Booking’s dominance in the online booking market. Booking agreed to purchase ETraveli in 2021, the transaction amounted to €1.6 billion. In Booking statedthat they will challenge the European Commission’s ban in court. Previously, American and British regulators approved this deal.
According to the European Commission, the purchase of a ticket booking service would allow Booking to “combine several products for travelers into one ecosystem.” This would give the service additional traffic and attract users planning trips, to the detriment of competitors. The European Commission noted that when considering the deal, they consulted with thousands of players in this market – other similar services, hotels, consumers, etc. Most of them believe that such a deal will reduce competition in the market and lead to an increase in both costs for hotels and prices for end consumers.
The European Commission statement also noted that Booking already accounts for almost 70% of the total online hotel booking market in the European Economic Area, a share that has been growing over the past decade. ETraveli, owned by the investment fund CVC Capital Partners, owns several online flight booking services, including Gotogate and Mytrip.
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