Airlines, hotels warn Google changes may benefit OTAs
Some could lose as much as 50% of their online traffic and possibly millions of euros in revenues due to Google's changes to its search results
The comments from Airlines for Europe group that has Air France KLM AIRF.PA and British Airways owner IAG ICAG.L as members, hotel group Hotrec, European Hotel Forum, Eurocommerce, Ecommerce Europe and Independent Retail Europe came after Google rolled out changes for app developers and users.
Key takeaways
- Google together with five other tech giants have to be fully compliant with a list of dos and don'ts set out under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) on March 7;
- Google said changes to search results give large intermediaries and aggregators more traffic and less for hotels, airlines, merchants and restaurants;
- Lobbying group eu travel tech which counts Amadeus, opens new tab , Booking.com, Expedia, opens new tab and Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab as its members, in turn criticized Google for allegedly continuing to favor its products over rivals despite DMA rules seeking to rectify that.
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