Hotels in OFT Price Fixing Investigation.

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Some of the emails from hotels to various retailers who have not been sticking to a secret rate agreement look bad. They may be screwed and will have to engage in some fast footwork.

Hotels face inquiry in price-fixing scandal

Some highlights from the article

Hotels and online travel agents – which now account for the majority of sales – are suspected of secretly agreeing a system called “rate parity”.

“Please REMOVE all Radisson Edwardian Hotel product from your site as you are causing us online rate parity issues,” wrote Gail Jordan, a sales director at the hotel company.

Ordering distributors to sell rooms at a minimum price could be a breach of legislation under European and UK competition law. Cartels operate by agreeing that all distributors fix a price and all charge the same amount. “Price-fixing covers any agreement or conduct where competitors settle on fixed prices or minimum prices. They don’t need to do this explicitly or directly,” said Jason Logendra, a competition law expert at the international law firm Watson, Farley and Williams. “It is enough that they agree on maximum discounts.”







Bet there is some furious pressing of delete buttons on corporate website servers.