British business watchdog the Office of Fair Trading is looking into possible breaches of competition law around hotel booking on the web.
In a statement released yesterday, OFT officials are giving nothing away as to the scope and background to the investigation except to say a number of parties are being asked to provide information.
"The investigation is at a very early stage and the OFT will not be in a position to conclude whether it considers the law has been infringed until it has completed its investigation and assessed the available evidence."
The confirmation of a formal probe into online hotel bookings comes after UK-based hotel site Skooshstepped up its so far one-sided public row with Booking.com over what it claims are unfair practices around room pricing.
There is no official indication as yet that the OFT study is directly related to concerns outlined by Skoosh last week.
Director Dorian Harris claims Priceline-owned Booking.com is asking hoteliers that partner with both companies to raise rates to those of Booking.com.
In a series of blog posts, Harris has written open letters to Booking.com bosses outlining his concerns.
At the time, Priceline officials in the US said:
“We are not aware of infringing any law and we have not been advised by any regulatory authority that rate parity constitutes anticompetitive behaviour. It’s a free world and hotels can sign up or sign off with us as they wish.”
Even before the confirmation of the wider OFT investigation yesterday, Harris claimed Skoosh was in dialogue with the OFT and it was looking into his particular issues with Booking.com.
Of the latest development, Harris says:
"I hope it’s obvious now that this wasn’t a dispute between Skoosh and Booking.com. The case I took to the OFT was price fixing across the entire industry which seemed to me to be ruled by fear for the last few years. It is impossible to run a business in that climate.
"I’m very much looking forward to an industry-wide discussion on getting ourselves out of this OTA stranglehold and back on track."
Booking.com has not replied to requests for further comment.