The price effects of prohibiting price parity clauses: evidence from international hotel groups

Dominant platforms like Booking.com and Amazon often impose Price Parity Clauses to prevent lower prices on alternative sales channels. We provide quasi-experimental evidence on the removal of these price restrictions in France in 2015 for three major international hotel groups. Our analysis reveals...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ma, P, Mantovani, A, Reggiani, C, Broocks, A, Duch-Brown, N
Format: Working paper
Language:English
Published: University of Oxford 2024
Description
Summary:Dominant platforms like Booking.com and Amazon often impose Price Parity Clauses to prevent lower prices on alternative sales channels. We provide quasi-experimental evidence on the removal of these price restrictions in France in 2015 for three major international hotel groups. Our analysis reveals limited and non-significant price effects for rooms sold through consumer-visible channels, such as hotels' websites or online travel agencies. However, we document a significant price reduction on sales channels not visible to consumers, such as direct offline bookings. Additionally, we identify a significant shift in sales share from online travel agencies to the hotels' direct offline channels.