Tag: travel
CMA investigates COVID-19 package holiday cancellations
First published by Author on August 04, 2021 in the following categories: Consumer Law Covid-19 Industry Investigations Latest Travel and Holidays and tagged with cma | consumer law | coronavirus | holiday deals | hotels | investigations | market study | travel
In March 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced its launch of a taskforce to tackle the challenges faced by businesses and consumers during the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the taskforce, the CMA later launched an investigation into COVID-19 package holiday cancellations, which has now been ongoing since last summer.
The decision to launch the investigation was made by the CMA following reports that some package holiday providers had been withholding refunds, despite the fact customers were forced to cancel holidays due to lockdown restrictions either within the UK or abroad.
In our eyes, no customer could have foreseen the coronavirus pandemic, and it is important that consumers are protected in these exceptional circumstances. We hope that the CMA’s continued pressure on the travel industry will ensure that all customers receive the refunds that they could be entitled to.
Booking hotels online: CMA continues to monitor practices and behaviour
First published by Author on September 03, 2020 in the following categories: Advertising Incentives Industry Pricing Selling Restrictions Travel and Holidays and tagged with advertising | cma | competition law | investigations | market study | pricing | travel
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) continues to monitor pricing practices and behaviours for booking hotels online.
Since the completion of their investigations in 2015 into the sector, they have been actively engaged in monitoring developments. As an important sector to keep track of, their work – and that of their European competition counterparts – is clearly important.
Here is some information about the CMA’s latest publication of their work in this sector, and a brief background of the preceding events.
Online hotel booking competition investigation update
First published by Author on October 03, 2019 in the following categories: Advertising Consumer Law Travel and Holidays and tagged with advertising | cma | consumer law | hotels | travel
An update has been issued in the online hotel booking competition investigations being conducted that has been focusing on consumer law.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been looking at the sector since 2017. They launched enforcement action in June 2018 on the basis that a number of hotel booking sites had reportedly been breaking important consumer law. Demands were also made for a number of companies to review their terms and practices to ensure that they’re being fair.
Matters like price guarantees and promises were also referred to the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) over whether any statements being made were misleading.