Booking Holdings denied the seizure the possibility of leaving the EU due to “dumb” regulatory burdens which its chief executive said put the online travel group at a “competitive disadvantage”, according to the FT.
Glenn Fogel attacked the EU’s new digital rules that force it to allow hotel companies to offer lower prices on their own websites than Booking.com, a subsidiary of the American group based in Amsterdam.
Booking sees a competitive disadvantage
“If the regulations are not smart regulations, then you are at a competitive disadvantage,” he said during the Financial Times’ TNW technology conference in the Netherlands on Thursday. “I believe in giving customers the best prices. Any regulation that prohibits us (from doing that), I think is a crazy regulation.”
Asked if he was considering moving the $135 billion company’s headquarters outside the EU because of his concerns about the bloc’s growing control over tech groups, Fogel said: “I never said no in any possible way.”
The threat follows a series of regulatory setbacks for EU companies, with the bloc seeking to challenge the market dominance of the world’s biggest tech companies through new laws and a series of antitrust actions.
Booking last month became the first European-based company to be designated an “online gatekeeper” under the EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA), which imposes additional burdens on the company, such as to force it to refrain from promoting its own services before it. competitors.
Fogel, who runs Booking Holdings as well as the largest subsidiary of Booking.com, expressed concerns that the platform was hit nationally and at the European level. Spain’s antitrust authority imposed a €486m provisional fine against Booking in February for alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
Last year, Brussels regulators blocked Booking’s €1.63bn takeover of Swedish group Etraveli over concerns it would harm competition. The booking appealed the decision to the EU courts in Luxembourg. However, Brussels’ decision contradicts the UK’s earlier approval of the deal.
Fogel’s attack on EU regulators comes as they prepare to use their new powers under the DMA to seize the largest US technology company.
In the coming weeks, European competition watchdogs are expected to sue Apple for allegedly harming competition in its mobile app store. The EU is also considering action against Google parent Alphabet for favoring its own app store and Facebook owner Meta’s use of personal data for advertising.
Fogel said: “We were born here. We were born in the Netherlands. We have a great store here. But I called (the EU) to keep it going. Brussels and the Member States should think carefully. How do we create a climate to ensure that Europe leads in technology? ” he asked.
There is no unfair competition
The European Commission declined to comment on his comments, but said: “With the DMA, business users who rely on the regulator’s access platforms to reach their customers now have unprecedented opportunity.”
He added: “Access regulators can continue to compete, but they cannot impose restrictions on their business customrs. The so-called “better prices” do not come at the expense of fair competition”.