A regulatory storm is heading for the UK, where pretty much every travel company will have to watch for blunders on any of its publicly available information on the web.
This isn't about data, as many would see it - it's a question of changes to advertising regulations which could affect everyone from airlines and metasearch sites to tour operators and those running the technology behind the scenes.
And, perhaps most dangerously, those in charge of throwing carefree tweets and Facebook updates around will also have to be extremely careful.
What is about to happen?
From March 1 2011 there are some - on the surface - subtle but actually rather fundamental changes being introduced to the Committee of Advertising Practice codes through the Advertising Standards Authority.
For the uninitiated, the ASA is regulates UK non-broadcast advertising by listening to and then either upholding or dismissing complaints from the public and the industry. It generally warns first, and then fines companies for any naughtiness, most often in the shape of misleading messages.
Next week, then, will see the existing code of conduct changed in two major ways: inclusion of social networks as channels for advertising messages; and, more importantly, inclusion of marketing on a company's own website AND the data featured on it which maybe streaming elsewhere.
Confused? It's a tricky area...
On the first of the big changes, any company that says something about the sale of a product in a tweet or on a Facebook page and it turns out to be false could be in trouble.
Given the often random way in which some companies treat their social media channels, this is a hugely important change to be aware of, especially if such networks are used to offload late products - the product details or price quoted will have to match the final price the consumer is expected to pay and the product they buy.
Okay, that's fair enough - just a timely reminder to the marketing/PR/social media teams required. But perhaps a lot of work for companies that have perhaps not exactly coordinated their marketing and social media departments.
The second change is far broader.
Under the current code, on price comparison and metasearch sites, if the results following a search are listed without any financial relationship (such as between site and airline/hotel) then any discrepancy around product detail will not affect the website.
It is a feed of data, after all.
If results are paid-for (or a commercially arranged XML feed, for example), then the supplier is responsible for the reliability of the product details (i.e. advertising message).
However, post-1 March, should a user click through on a listing which is NOT paid-for but the product information is misleading then the supplier could be liable.
This, of equal importance, also means that product information on a supplier website must be correct. In short, previously the ASA only scrutinised marketing messages on advertising channels. It now covers everything.
Of course, this is an extremely positive step for consumers - transparent pricing across different marketing channels is, let's face it, A Good Thing.
But for the industry such moves are huge. Not only do companies have to ensure their advertising messages are watertight, but also data feeds into metasearch sites must match the final price.
In addition, advertising on supplier sites that are updated dynamically by data feeds or a GDS, for example, will need to be correct... all the time.
The GDS angle here is interesting. Reliability of data will be of even more importance when supplying feeds given that the beady eye of the advertising regulators will be watching.
However, there is a wrinkle, as always.
The ASA has no real proactive, investigative remit - it scrutinises advertising AFTER a report is filed either by a member of the public or another company (more often than not, a rival).
It is almost guaranteed that there be lots of scrutinisation of rival company data and advertising in the coming weeks and months, with even a sniff of a wrongdoing quickly reported to the ASA.
The ASA estimates that around 3,000 complaints would have fallen under the new code if it had been in place over the past few years.