Two hotels open in Barcelona the wave of damages claims against Booking

The litigation over Booking's parity clauses has made the jump to the Spanish courts. Two independent hotels, with no ties to any major chain, have filed a damages claim against the booking platform before the Commercial Section of the Barcelona Court of Instance, valued at around two million euros, El Confidencial has revealed. The parties did not reach an agreement in the alternative dispute resolution phase, which opened the judicial route.

The claim is the first move of a larger offensive: sources familiar with the process cited by the newspaper point to new actions planned for next spring which, taken together, could reach 400 million euros in claims from the Spanish hotel sector.

The basis: two decades of parity clauses

The action rests on the parity clauses Booking imposed on hotel establishments since its entry into the Spanish market in 2004. In their initial version, the clauses were broad: they prevented the hotel from offering its rooms at lower prices both on its own website and on other online travel agencies. In 2015 the company removed the broad version, but kept the restriction on the hotel's own channels, which continued to apply in Spain until July 2024.

The turning point came on 19 September 2024, when the Court of Justice of the European Union concluded, in response to a preliminary reference on that model, that parity clauses could not be considered, in principle, necessary and proportionate ancillary restrictions to guarantee the viability of the accommodation booking service. That doctrine weakened the platform's main defensive argument in the European debate on rate parity.

The Spanish claimants also have a relevant administrative precedent: in July 2024 the CNMC imposed on Booking a fine of 413 million euros for abuse of a dominant position, the largest sanction issued by the body up to that moment. The combination of the administrative sanction and the European doctrine forms the ground on which the civil damages claims are now being built.

The claim: access to evidence sources and economic expert report

The claim is led by Eskariam, a firm specialised in damages claims arising from competition law infringements, with economic analysis from the consultancy Compass Lexecon. The expert study estimates a loss of between 1.65 and 2.12 per cent of the establishments' annual sales during the period in which they maintained contractual relations with the platform, an estimate whose application to each hotel the court will have to examine.

The report builds a counterfactual scenario: reconstructing what revenues and profits the hotels would have obtained in a market without the contractual restrictions, and comparing them with the actual results. To do so it takes as reference the evolution of other markets where Booking's parity clauses were banned by law, and identifies four economic effects: the reduction of room prices, the increase of direct sales on and off the internet, the decrease in online agency commissions and the modification of the distribution of bookings among marketing channels.

Alongside the claim for payment, the claimants request access to sources of evidence, the mechanism that allows claiming relevant documentation and information held by the opposing party to prove the conduct and quantify its consequences. In competition litigation, where much of the market data is in the defendant company's hands, this tool is usually decisive in setting the final amount of the damage.

Why it matters for the legal profession

The case illustrates the maturing of private competition litigation in Spain. The sequence is already a pattern: an administrative sanction or European doctrine on a practice, followed by damages actions articulated by specialised firms with economic expert support. Collective or serial claims cease to be an exception and become a stable procedural business line, as can also be seen in other recent litigation fronts, from the cassation appeal over Madrid's waste charge to the Supreme Court's warning on mass litigation in defaulter files.

For firms advising hotel SMEs, the Barcelona claim raises immediate practical questions: preserving the contractual and invoicing documentation with the platform, identifying the period of application of the clauses at each establishment and assessing the potential amount with an economic methodology defensible at trial. Quantification will foreseeably be the main evidentiary battleground.

For the other side of the counter, the proceedings will serve to observe how the courts of instance apply to the Spanish market the European doctrine on ancillary restrictions and what defensive margin the platform retains regarding the effects attributed to parity, especially as to causation and quantum of damage.

Booking's defence and the European front

The hotel offensive has forced Booking to articulate its defence on two distinct stages. For the appeal against the CNMC sanction, the company hired Clifford Chance, as El Confidencial reported in February 2025. The defence against the hotels' civil claims is handled by Freshfields. The separation of firms reflects the different nature of both fronts: the contentious-administrative one against the fine, with its own calendar, and the civil one, where the debate will be evidentiary and quantitative.

In parallel with the Barcelona claim, the judicial battle against the platform is growing on other fronts. According to elEconomista, the European collective claim brought before the Amsterdam courts already groups 18,135 adhered hotels. That claim, coordinated by the Stichting Hotel Claims Alliance (SHCA), will foreseeably hold its first hearing in 2027 and contemplates damages that, according to the claimants' estimates, could reach several billion euros.

In Spain, besides the Barcelona proceedings, CCS Abogados and Ramon y Cajal Abogados participate, together with litigation funds such as Deminor, in another offensive that already groups more than 1,400 companies and seeks compensation of between 800 and 1,000 million euros. The coexistence of several claim channels - individual lawsuits, national groupings and the European collective one - will force hotels to choose forum and strategy, and the courts to manage the concurrence of actions over substantially identical facts.

What follows

The proceedings are at an early stage. The claimants have exhausted the alternative route and the case will be heard in the Commercial Section of the Barcelona Court of Instance. The sources consulted anticipate that this first claim acts as a pilot procedure for a wave of claims that could materialise in the spring of 2027, with an aggregate scope the sector puts in the hundreds of millions of euros. The evolution of this first case - admission, evidence-access measures and first assessments of the expert report - will set the pace and the appetite of the claims that follow.

Parity clauses have been in the sights of competition authorities for years; in Spain, the CNMC maintains intense inspection activity, as shown by the recent inspections in the energy markets.

Frequently asked questions

Who has sued Booking and before which court?

Two independent hotels, with no ties to major chains, have filed the claim before the Commercial Section of the Barcelona Court of Instance, after the alternative dispute resolution phase failed. The claim is valued at around two million euros.

What are parity clauses?

They are contractual conditions that prevented hotels from offering their rooms at prices lower than those published on the platform, both on other channels and, until July 2024, on the hotel's own website.

What precedents back the claim?

The CJEU judgment of 19 September 2024, which denied as a general matter that parity clauses were necessary ancillary restrictions of the booking service, and the 413 million euro fine imposed by the CNMC on Booking in July 2024 for abuse of a dominant position.

How is the claimed damage calculated?

Through a Compass Lexecon expert report estimating a loss of between 1.65 and 2.12 per cent of annual sales, built on a counterfactual scenario comparing with markets where parity was banned.

Will there be more claims?

According to sources consulted by El Confidencial, new actions are being prepared for next spring which, together, could reach some 400 million euros.

Sources

• El Confidencial, "Los hoteles espanoles inician la batalla para reclamar danos contra Booking", 10 November 2026 (consulted on 10 November 2026).

Story based on a single specialised press source. The aggregate figures for future claims come from process sources cited by that outlet and not from judicial documentation consulted directly.