In Turkey are about to ban the website for booking hotels Booking.com. The Istanbul court has ordered a restriction of access to the website. The final decision whether the site will be blocked is made from the Council for Information Technology in Turkey. For now, the site is accessible.

But it can be stopped at the request of the local Association of Travel Agencies in Turkey (TURSAB). According to the companies which are members in TURSAB  Booking violates the competition law. Besides its activities impede the business of the local travel agencies. If the site is really blocked the previously made reservations won’t be canceled.

In mid-January, the site was fined by the Council on competition in Turkey 680 000 dollars for breach of competition law. The decision of the Turkish regulator is made after advertising on the site, according to which Booking guarantees the best price. According to the regulator, however, this statement distorts market competition because the company can not unambiguously claim that its product is “best.”

Booking.com is one of the world’s largest site for online booking of hotels. But according to the business, its services are very expensive, as it charged the hotel 15% of the transaction price. Therefore, very often the client can find better offer directly from the hotel.