Booking.com, the largest online travel agent in SA, has agreed to scrap rules over pricing as part of a settlement with the Competition Commission.

In terms of the new agreement, Booking.com will no longer be able to prevent accommodation providers from offering lower prices on their own or via other booking platforms. 

Fin24 reports that the Competition Commission last year released a report into the SA ecommerce industry following a two-year-long probe.

It also issued specific remedial actions that platforms such as Takealot, UberEats, Google, and Booking.com had to implement to help encourage competition from smaller digital operators.

Booking.com, which the commission found to have the largest revenue share of online travel agents in SA – accounting for over 50% of the market – came under fire for its price rules.

This after it implemented wide price parity conditions on accommodation providers who listed on the platform.

This requires accommodation providers to list their property on Booking.com at a rate that is no less favourable than the provider is offering through its own channel or that of a different online travel agent.

In effect, the price parity conditions meant that anyone who listed accommodation on Booking.com could not offer any incentive to potential customers to book through an alternative platform where booking fees might have been lower.

The report notes wide price parity within digital platforms ‘is now generally accepted to be a hardcore restraint where the anti-competitive effects outweigh any potential justification’.

It noted that Booking.com had removed these clauses in the EU but continued to enforce them in SA.

Following its probe, the commission issued Booking.com with a demand to remove its wide price parity rules, as well as narrow price parity rules – which only force accommodation providers to fix prices on their own booking platform. 

Fin24 notes that the company took the commission's findings on appeal but is now undertaking to remove the clauses.

Full Fin24 report