Previous Story
Booking.com Activities Suspended in Turkey
Posted On 30 Mar 2017
Comment: 0
Tag: booking.com, breached competition rules, c1369c, Istanbul 5th Court of First Instance, lodging reservations, online hotel booking platform, travel fare aggregator website, travel metasearch engine, Turkey, Turkey’s Competition Authority, Turkish Association of Travel Agents (TÜRSAB), Turkish competition law
An Istanbul court ordered the suspension of the activities of online hotel booking platform Booking.com in Turkey, the country’s media outlets said on Wednesday. Booking.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine for lodging reservations.
According to the Istanbul 5th Court of First Instance, the Dutch-based website had violated Turkish competition law. The decision came following a complaint made by the Association of Turkish Travel Agents (TURSAB) that the website is engaged in unfair competition against Turkish-based hotel and flight booking platforms.
Following the decision, the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) is to be ordered to ban access to the website in Turkey.
According to reports, people who have previously made hotel bookings through the website would not face any problems regarding the court ruling.
Turkey’s Competition Authority has already fined Booking.com some 2.5 million Turkish Liras due to TÜRSAB’s complaint that the site breached competition rules.
