Leading hospitality service providers OYO and MakeMyTrip-Goibibo (MMT-GO) were fined more than Rs392 crore by CCI (Competition Commission of India) on Wednesday. The penalty is mentioned on page 131 and is explained as “Unfair Business Practice”.
Allegations are that MMT-GO & OYO made an agreement regarding price parity. Under this deal, the hotels were not allowed to sell their room on other online platforms or at a different price to the customers, thus affecting business for independent hotels and other online hospitality service providers.
The Competition Commission of India mentioned that they have been keeping an eye on and investigating these companies since 2019. Later MMT and OYO were fined for anti-competitive conduct. According to the findings, MakeMyTrip was showing preferential treatment to OYO by denying business to other companies like Treebo and Fab Hotels. This restricted the market and placed OYO as the leading service provider among all hospitality companies.
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After the allegation was proved relevant, CCI made a statement that “The Commission is of the view that the commercial arrangement between OYO and MMT-GO, which led to the delisting of FabHotels, Treebo and the independent hotels, which were availing the services of these franchisors, was anti-competitive.”
Besides monetary fines, the Competition Commission of India directed the MMT-GO to modify their agreement with hotels and asked to remove any prices or obligations they have imposed. The CCI ordered that the company must provide transparency and non-discriminatory access to other hotel chains and remove any preferential bias.
