Booking, a platform for booking travel accommodation, has been flashed by the European Court of Justice.

A German hotel brought charges against the company for granting a discount without the hotel's consent or knowledge. In the course of the proceedings, Booking wanted to enforce Amsterdam as the place of jurisdiction for the dispute. The European headquarters of the group would be located there, as reisevor9.de reports. But the ECJ has the final say in such cases. And this decided in favor of the hotel. The judgment of the ECJ states: “A hotel that uses it can in principle be sued for failure to abuse a dominant position in a court of the Member State in which the hotel is located.”

The German Hotel Association sees the judgment as a first step to put Booking in its place. “This fundamental decision by the highest judges of the European Union is an enormously important interim success for us in the fight between David and Goliath,” said IHA chairman Otto Lindner. "We assume that the significant lowering of the hurdles for legal action that has now taken place will lead to a certain discipline in the market behavior of the powerful booking portal with its headquarters in Amsterdam."