{"id":1088,"date":"2019-10-03T13:55:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T12:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.competitionlawyers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2019-10-03T13:55:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T12:55:58","slug":"online-hotel-booking-competition-investigation-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.competitionlawyers.co.uk\/blog\/online-hotel-booking-competition-investigation-update","title":{"rendered":"Online hotel booking competition investigation update"},"content":{"rendered":"

An update has been issued in the online hotel booking competition investigations being conducted that has been focusing on consumer law.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re being fair.<\/p>\n

Matters like price guarantees and promises were also referred to the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) over whether any statements being made were misleading.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Previous undertakings in the online hotel booking competition study<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We covered the undertakings<\/a><\/strong> that were agreed to as part of the online hotel booking competition \u00a0investigation back in February 2019.<\/p>\n

These undertakings saw a number of sites make formal commitments to change their practices and to ensure that nothing they do could be considered as misleading to the consumer. The CMA had particular concerns with regards to promotions, scarcity messages, hidden charges, and the disclosure (or lack thereof) of information related to commissions.<\/p>\n

The CMA also published a set of principles that made clear of their view as to what companies need to do to ensure that they\u2019re not in breach of important consumer laws.<\/p>\n

Latest: commitment to principles<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Last month, the fruits of the CMA\u2019s investigations into online hotel booking competition saw positive progress in the mission to ensure that consumers are being treated fairly.<\/p>\n

A number of additional booking sites, travel agencies, meta-search engines, hotel chains and rental companies committed to the CMA\u2019s principles. They signed up to the CMA\u2019s sector-wide compliance principles, which has been seen as a major overhaul of the market on the whole.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood that 25 firms have made changes. These include big players in the market like Airbnb, Google and TripAdvisor. They follow companies that had already agreed to the principles, which included the likes of Accor, Hilton, IHG and Marriott.<\/p>\n

Another vital win for consumer law<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The latest developments, as well as the achievements made this year and throughout the whole online hotel booking competition investigation, are important.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a vital win in terms of upholding important consumer laws that are there to make sure that people are not being ripped off.<\/p>\n

We all want a good deal, and the internet has paved the way for a wealth of deals and packages to be put together. But when companies can abuse the system for their own gain at the expense of the consumer, changes must always be implemented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading Online hotel booking competition investigation update<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,59,60],"tags":[29,2,61,63,62],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","category-consumer-law","category-travel-and-holidays","tag-advertising","tag-cma","tag-consumer-law","tag-hotels","tag-travel"],"yoast_head":"\nOnline hotel booking competition investigation update - 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