An İstanbul court on Wednesday ruled for a preventive ban on the activities of the Booking.com online hotel booking platform in Turkey due to “unfair competition.”
The İstanbul 5th Commercial Court of First Instance decision came after the Turkish Association of Travel Agents (TÜRSAB) filed a complaint against the Dutch-based Booking.com website claiming that the website is engaged in unfair competition against Turkish-based hotel and flight booking platforms.
According to the decision, Booking.com will not be able conduct commercial activities via its website Booking.com, and the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) is to be ordered to ban access to the website in Turkey.
Earlier, Turkey’s Competition Authority fined Booking.com TL 2,543,992.85 over TÜRSAB’s complaint.
Turkey’s relations with European countries, including the Netherlands, have been strained over their refusal to allow Turkish government officials to hold rallies there ahead of a public referendum in Turkey in April.