EU General Court in Luxembourg upholds blocking of Booking’s ETraveli deal
The General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg upheld the European Commission’s decision to block Booking Holdings’ acquisition of Sweden’s ETraveli for €1.63 billion. The court dismissed Booking’s lawsuit against the antitrust veto adopted by the European Commission in 2023.
The court agreed with the European Commission
The European Commission believed that the deal would have allowed Booking to create a travel ecosystem in which it would be difficult for competitors to compete. The court agreed with the regulator’s assessment and rejected the company’s arguments that the Commission had not followed its own merger control rules and had applied the wrong legal standard.
The judges said that the European Commission had correctly established that the acquisition of ETraveli Group, a leading European operator of online flight bookings, would strengthen Booking’s already dominant position in the online travel agency market in the hotel sector. Cyprus Mail reported on the court’s decision.
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Companies’ assets
Booking Holdings’ brands include Booking.com, Rentalcars, Priceline and Agoda. ETraveli, which is owned by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, owns the Gotogate and Mytrip services and also operates the airline content distribution service provider TripStack.
The European Commission has stepped up scrutiny of technology deals amid concerns over so-called killer acquisitions — purchases in which large companies buy smaller competitors to eliminate competition or strengthen their own market positions. The General Court’s decision may be appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
