Sources: EU regulators plan to block Booking.com's €1.63B acquisition of Sweden-based Etraveli due to competition concerns; UK's CMA approved the deal in 2022
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times :
Context & Ripple Effects
Booking.com’s proposed purchase of its flight-booking partner was announced in 2021 as a way to bring Etraveli more closely into its travel platform. The reported EU position diverges from the original plan to acquire Etraveli and from the UK CMA’s prior approval, making the transaction a test of jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction merger review.
The report also foreshadows the EU’s eventual prohibition of the transaction. That outcome sits alongside later scrutiny of Booking.com’s competitive conduct, including a provisional Spanish antitrust fine.
First-order effects
- A formal EU prohibition would stop Booking.com from completing the €1.63B purchase in the bloc, leaving Etraveli outside Booking’s corporate control.
- Booking.com would have to pursue its flight-booking ambitions without owning a key partner, while Etraveli would remain independently available to the market.
Second-order effects
- Rival travel platforms and airline-ticket distributors avoid competing against a combined Booking–Etraveli operation, preserving a separate distribution partner and competitor.
- The differing EU and UK outcomes make regulatory clearance in one major market a less reliable signal for cross-border platform acquisitions.
Third-order effects
- If regulators continue to treat expansion by established travel platforms as a competition risk, acquisitions that connect adjacent travel services may face more demanding remedies or outright challenges.
- The episode points toward a more fragmented market-access environment in which platform strategy is shaped as much by regional antitrust standards as by deal logic.
The trend: Large digital travel platforms are facing closer scrutiny when acquisitions extend their reach across adjacent booking services.