MOSCOW, October 8 (RAPSI) — Booking.com B.V. filed an appeal against the decision of the Moscow Commercial Court saying the company abused its market dominance by imposing unfavorable terms of contracts on Russian hotels as stated by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), according to the court's materials.

The company appealed to the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals against the decision of the first instance court of 6 September. At that time, the court said the conclusions and evidence provided by the antimonopoly watchdog were sufficient to rule in its favor.

Earlier, FAS had fined Booking.com B.V. managing Booking.com aggregator (The Netherlands) 1.3 billion rubles ($17.5 million) for abusing its market dominance.

In December 2020, the watchdog completed consideration of an antimonopoly case against Booking.com B.V. launched upon an application filed by the All-Russian public organization of small and medium business Opora Russia.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service revealed that the company had abused its power at Russia’s accommodation reservation market forcing contract terms of the need of obligatory provision and enforcing price and room parity as well as conditions of compatibility with closed user groups upon hotels and hostels. This meant that the hotels could not set prices for their services on other websites lower than on Booking.com., the statement reads.

The regulator held that such actions of the aggregator restricted market competition and led to the infringement of the hotels interests.

Booking.com registered in Amsterdam provides an online accommodation reservation service in more than 200 countries.