THE online hotel reservation platform Booking.com has said that it could be fined a whopping €486 million for anti-competitive practices in Spain.

It would be the largest financial penalty ever imposed by Spain’s competition watchdog, the CNMC.

The CNMC launched an investigation in 2022 to determine whether the Dutch subsidiary of U.S. Group Booking Holdings– which dominates the online hotel booking market- has exploited its position.

The company warned about the possibility of the sanction on Thursday during an announcement of its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023.

The CNMC probe into Booking’s activities started in October 2022 after it received complaints from the Spanish Association of Hotel Directors and the Hotel Business Association of Madrid.

Both groups accused the platform of a series of practices that could amount to an ‘abuse of Booking’s dominant position’ with respect to the intermediation services it offers to hotels.

Hotels have accused Booking of forcing them not to market rooms on other websites and of setting ‘abusive’ average commissions of 22%, without any variation accounting for the size of a hotel.

According to the CNMC, Booking imposed unfair conditions on hotels in Spain and secondly, it acted in a way to ‘exclude other online travel portals’.

The CNMC said its probe looked at practices ‘that exploited the economic dependence that hotels had on dealing with Booking’.

The authority has sent its initial findings to Booking and details of the proposed fine, although the final decision will not be made until July.

Booking has already made it clear that it will appeal against the penalty if it is confirmed.

A company source told the El Pais newspaper; “We are disappointed with the CNMC’s decision and strongly disagree with its conclusions.”

“We intend to appeal this unprecedented decision in Spain if it becomes final.”

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