The French government has ordered online travel giant Expedia Inc. to pay a fine of €427,000 (US$566,000) for “misleading marketing practices.”
A French court ruled that Expedia was displaying incorrect information on hotel room availability, incorrect contact information for hotels and inaccurately describing standard rates as promotional discounts.
The ruling came after the French hotelier federation Synhorcat initiated a complaint with the government about Expedia’s practices. Some €305,000 (US$404,000) of the fine will go to Synhorcat while €79,000 (US$104,000) will go to Hôtel de la Place du Louvre in Paris and €43,000 (US$57,000) to the Château Guilguiffin in Landudec, France.
Synhorcat lauded the ruling, saying “already a victory for consumers and hospitality professionals, it carries within it the seeds of a moralization of e-commerce as a whole.”
In a statement to the press, Expedia said that “The ruling acknowledges our efforts to ensure the information contained on its websites is as simple, accessible and comprehensible as possible and also that significant efforts have been made beyond our legal obligations to add further information regarding both phone numbers and their conditions and hotel availability displayed on FR.hotels.com and Expedia.fr. TripAdvisor has also duly made changes to the wording on tripadvisor.fr on pages where prices or availability are shown in cooperation with the investigation.”