Online travel firms Make My Trip-Goibibo (MMT-Go) and hospitality services provider OYO were slapped with penalties totalling more than Rs 392 crore by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) today.
The penalty, spelt out in a 131-page order, is for “unfair business practices”.
As per the order, Make My Trip-Goibibo will pay a fine of Rs 223.48 crore, while OYO will pay Rs 168.88 crore.
The allegations are that MMT-Go “imposed a price parity in their agreements with hotel partners.” Under these deals, hotels are not allowed to “sell their rooms on any other platform or on its own online portal at a price below the price at which it is being offered on the two entities’ platforms.”
Besides the monetary fine, the CCI also directed MMT-Go to “suitably modify its agreements with hotels/chain hotels to remove/abandon the price and room availability parity obligations imposed by it on its hotel/chain hotel partners with respect to other OTAs (Online Travel Agencies)”.
The regulator also has asked It to alter agreements to do away with certain exclusivity conditions.
Source: Economic Times
