The deadline for preparation expired yesterday, so from today one of the world’s largest online accommodation brokers, Booking.com, must operate within much stricter operational frameworks in the European Union.
In mid-May, the European Commission listed the Dutch company among the gatekeeper service providers defined in the Digital Markets Act, after which six months were available for the platform to meet the stricter requirements. Booking.com thus joins an illustrious company whose members include Apple, Alphabet, ByteDance, Meta and even Microsoft.
The classification of Booking.com as a gatekeeper can bring serious advantages primarily to the hotels, accommodation providers, car rental companies and other travel service providers present on the site, since from now on these businesses can freely offer better offers on their own website or on other channels (prohibition of the so-called parity clause).
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An important change is that accommodation providers can now receive real-time and continuous access to information generated by them or their customers using Booking.com, and business users can even decide to forward the data they generate on Booking.com to alternative platforms.
As of today, the accommodation agent is also subject to new reporting obligations, so the company is required to prepare the so-called in compliance reports, it must demonstrate whether it complies with the provisions of the law and what measures it has taken in order to bring its operations into line with the DMA.
In addition, the company must also report to the Commission on the techniques it uses for consumer profiling – for this, an independently audited description had to be submitted to the EU’s executive body.
If the Commission considers that Booking’s solutions do not comply with the legislation on digital markets, it can take formal enforcement measures using the full range of tools at its disposal. In the event of a violation, the Commission can impose a fine of up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide turnover, which can reach up to 20% in the event of a decline. In addition, in the case of persistent non-compliance, the Commission is also empowered to take further corrective measures, such as ordering the gatekeeper to sell the business or parts of it, or prohibiting the gatekeeper from making certain acquisitions.
Source: www.hwsw.hu
