Israeli consumer watchdog fines Booking.com NIS 3m

Consumer Protection Authority  photo: PR
Consumer Protection Authority photo: PR

The overnight prices listed on the website did not include VAT.

The Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Authority today fined international reservations company Booking.com NIS 3 million. The website reserves hotel rooms all over the world, including in Hebrew.

The grounds for the fine are that the site misled customers by listing overnight prices that do not include VAT. Only when Israeli consumers arrive at the hotel in Israel do they learn that they must add VAT to the price of their reservation.

The Israel Hotel Association notes that the website has begun revising the prices it lists for reservations by adding VAT, but "It is necessary to continue to make sure that this will remain the case." Booking.com is not an Israeli company; the fine imposed by the Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Authority applies to the website's Israeli office.

Hotel Association president Amir Hayek said, "The Hotel Association issued a warning about this matter not long ago, and we know and are confident that together with the Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Authority, we will put an end to this problem for the sake of complete price transparency."

Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on August 14, 2017

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017

Consumer Protection Authority  photo: PR
Consumer Protection Authority photo: PR
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