News > Booking Holdings’ acquisition of Etraveli now subject to full-scale EU antitrust probe

Booking Holdings’ acquisition of Etraveli now subject to full-scale EU antitrust probe

The European Union’s antitrust regulators warned that Booking Holdings’ planned acquisition of Sweden-based rival ETraveli may strengthen the U.S. company’s position in the market for hotel online travel agencies, and push up costs for hotels. “Competition is already limited in the hotel OTA (online travel agencies) market and Booking appears to be unconstrained by competing OTAs, hotels and end-customers,” the European Commission said in a statement.