Berlin Court Ruling Paves Way for Hotel Compensation Claims Against Booking.com
A recent decision by the Berlin Regional Court has opened the door for more than 1,000 German hotels to seek compensation from Booking.com for damages arising from anticompetitive best-price clauses.
The court found that Booking.com used these clauses between January 2013 and January 2016 to restrict hotels' ability to set competitive prices, thereby violating European competition law.
The ruling, issued on December 16, 2025, affects 1,099 hotel operators who were part of a broader group of 1,288 plaintiffs seeking declaratory judgments on their right to compensation. The court determined that both the wide best-price clauses, in effect until mid-2015, and the narrower ones used thereafter unlawfully constrained hotels' pricing freedom and contributed to market foreclosure.
These clauses required hotels to offer their best prices on Booking.com, preventing them from providing lower rates through their own websites or other channels. This restriction not only hindered hotels' ability to pass on commission savings to customers but also limited their capacity to manage pricing strategies effectively, particularly for last-minute bookings.
The judgment follows a September 2024 ruling by the European Court of Justice, which confirmed that Booking.com's parity clauses breached competition law across Europe.