MOSCOW, 14 Sep. The Moscow Arbitration Court registered a statement by Booking.com BV (the Netherlands), demanding to declare illegal a fine of 1.3 billion rubles imposed on it by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia for abusing its dominant position in the hotel aggregator market. Booking.com's application to challenge the decisions of the administrative authorities on bringing to administrative responsibility was submitted to the court on September 13, but it has not yet been accepted for consideration.
Rosturizm opposed the ban on Booking.com activities in Russia FAS RF announced on August 26 that it had imposed a turnover fine of RUB 1.3 billion on Booking.com for abuse of market dominance. FAS in December 2020 completed consideration of the antitrust case against the company. The case was initiated on the basis of an appeal by the public organization of small and medium-sized businesses «Support of Russia.» parity of prices and rooms, as well as the terms of interaction with closed user groups. As noted by the FAS, «for hotels, this meant that they could not set the price for their services in other sales channels lower than on the Booking.com aggregator.» The agency found that such actions restrict competition in the market and infringe on the interests of hotels. It issued an order to the company to cease actions that violate antitrust laws. Booking.com challenged the decision and the order in court, but the Moscow Arbitration Court recognized the FAS acts as legal on August 30. Booking.com previously stated that «the tourism industry is a highly competitive environment. as consumers use a variety of ways to find and book a hotel room. » The company estimates that European hotels, for example, «use an average of about 6-7 sales channels at the same time, and they do it wisely in order to maximize their revenues — while Booking.com has a 13% share of this market.»
FAS demanded from Tele2 to reduce tariff prices
