The price effects of prohibiting price parity clauses: evidence from international hotel groups

Working paper

Dominant platforms like Booking.com and Amazon often impose Price Parity Clauses to prevent lower prices on alternative sales channels. We provide quasi-experimental evidence on the removal of these price restrictions in France in 2015 for three major international hotel groups. Our analysis reveals limited and non-significant price effects for rooms sold through consumer-visible channels, such as hotels' websites or online travel agencies. However, we document a significant price reduction on sales channels not visible to consumers, such as direct offline bookings. Additionally, we identify a significant shift in sales share from online travel agencies to the hotels' direct offline channels.

Authors: Ma, P; Mantovani, A; Reggiani, C; Broocks, A; Duch-Brown, N

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: University of Oxford
• Series: Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
• Publication date: 2024-04-10
• Paper number: 1043
• Language: English
• Keywords: price parity clauses; antitrust evaluation; hotel pricing; online travel agents