Bed & Breakfast News Issue #46 Spring 2018 | Page 11

EU to curb ‘unfair’ practices
of OTAs and search engines
Visit our website: | bandbnews.co.uk | 11
The European Commission last month proposed new rules to combat ‘unfair
trading practices’ by online platforms including online travel agents (OTAs)
and search engines including Google.
The Commission said hotels, B&Bs and guest houses would be among those
to benefit from the rules aimed at creating “a fair, predictable, sustainable and
trusted business environment” online.
The proposals provide for ‘increased
transparency’, the introduction of dispute
resolution schemes – including a right for
trade associations to bring court proceedings
– and the establishment of an EU body to
monitor the effectiveness of the measures.
Platforms including Booking.com, Expedia,
and Google will be required to publish
policies detailing:
“How they treat their own goods
and services compared to those
used by professional users”; and
“How they use contract clauses to
demand the most-favourable range
or price of products and services.”
They will also be required to ‘set out the
general criteria that determine how goods
and services are ranked in search results’.
(The B&B Association gave evidence to the
EU and CMA of how OTA search rankings
of B&Bs and hotels are misleading and
manipulated.)
They would also have to give ‘reasonable
minimum notice’ of changes to terms and
conditions. This proposal would prevent
abuses such as the minimal notice recently
given by Booking.com to B&Bs and hotels
about its change of treatment (in the OTA’s
favour) of commission on cancellations,
for instance.
The Commission said: “The current position
of online platforms as mediators of business -
customer relationships allows them to engage
in unfair trading practices that can cause
significant economic harm to the businesses
that use them.”
Commisioner Mariya Gabriel added: “Platforms
and search engines are important channels for
EU businesses to reach consumers, but we must
make sure they are not abusing their power.”
David Weston of the B&B Association said:
“Although we have not yet been able to study the
small print, we are delighted that the proposals
do seem to be going in the right direction.
“Having held a number of meetings in
Brussels over the last two years to explain our
members’ concerns, we are pleased to see that
the Commission seem to have understood that
the platforms have been abusing their market
dominance, and that the balance or power
needs to be redressed in favour of
small businesses and consumers.”