Mette Alfter of Frontier Economics and Dr Matthias Hunold of Heinrich-Heine University Dusseldorf, Germany, have today published an article, “Wide, narrow or not at all? Different decisions with respect to best price clauses of online travel agents in Europe”, in the Journal of German and European competition law, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb.

The article deals with diverging decisions taken by national competition authorities in Europe with respect to ‘best price clauses’ in the contracts of online travel agents and hotels. The authors discuss the main differences between these decisions, explains the primary theories of harm from an economic perspective, and concludes with an outlook on possible implications for future cases in relation to parity clauses and similar vertical restraints in internet retailing.

Frontier advises clients on competition issues across Europe.

For more information, please contact Miriam Rau at m.rau@frontier-economics.com or call +49 221 337 131 00.