European Commission fines
hotel group for market partitioning
The Commission has fined Meliá EUR 6.7 million for agreements with Kuoni,
REWE, Thomas Cook and TUI that restricted active and passive sales for hotel
accommodation in the EU.
The fine includes a 30% reduction for co-operation that Meliá provided
during the investigation.
Meliá's standard terms contained a clause under which the contracts with
tour operators were valid only for reservations of consumers who were resident
in specified countries. The Commission
found that this restricted the ability of tour operators to sell the hotel
accommodation in all EEA countries and to respond to passive requests direct
from consumers outside the specified countries.
As a result, the clauses also discriminated between customers based on
their country of residence or nationality.
The case falls under the ‘secondary line discrimination’ theory where
certain clauses in contracts can be found to infringe Article 101 TFEU in extreme
circumstances. At the same time, the
decision reflects the Commission’s strict stance against provisions in
contracts that partition the single market.
Followjng investigation, the Commission has closed its inquiry into the
tour operators.
Melia (Holiday Pricing) (Case
AT.40528); Commission press release IP/20/302
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