The Fair Trade Commission conducted on-site inspections Wednesday of three major online hotel booking site operators suspected of violating the Antimonopoly Law.
The Japanese units of Expedia Inc. of the United States and Booking.com B.V. of the Netherlands, and Rakuten, Inc., which operates Rakuten Travel, are suspected of asking hotels to list accommodation rates cheaper than those advertised on rival sites.
It is the first time the FTC has conducted on-site inspections of online travel booking sites.
The sites list hotel rates and room availability among other information and receive a commission from hotels if users make reservations via their sites.
The three companies, categorized as online travel agents (OTAs), conduct trade only on the internet. With the spread of smartphones, OTAs have attracted a wide range of users, especially among travelers who prefer direct bookings to package holidays. The online travel booking market, including flight bookings, earns several trillion yen annually.
According to sources close to the matter, the three companies allegedly established contractual terms demanding domestic hotel operators post accommodation fees on their websites at either the same rate or cheaper than those posted on their rivals' sites. They also are suspected of demanding that the number of rooms listed on their websites be the same as or higher than those posted on their rivals' sites.
Of the three operators in question, Expedia and Booking.com are ranked as the world's top two in terms of OTA market share. Both are popular among the growing number of foreign tourists visiting Japan. More than 40,000 accommodations in Japan are listed on the two sites. Rakuten Travel is a leading domestic OTA service with more than 30,000 hotels in Japan registered on its site.
The law prohibits "restrictive trading" because a company with a dominant market share and name recognition could unjustly restrict the independent business activities of its clients by demanding they offer more advantageous or equal conditions than those available to its competitors.
The FTA believes the conduct of the three OTAs could constitute a violation of the law, the sources said.
Expedia's Japanese arm told The Yomiuri Shimbun that it was yet to confirm the matter and therefore could not comment. Rakuten and the Japanese arm of Booking.com and Rakuten said they would cooperate fully with the inspections.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
