About SHCA

The Stichting Hotel Claims Alliance (SHCA) is a non-profit foundation created to champion Europe’s hotels.

SHCA has launched one of Europe’s largest opt-in competition collective actions against Booking.com over the anti-competitive use of price parity clauses between 2004 and 2024. The claim has the full support of HOTREC, the umbrella association for Europe’s hotels, restaurants, bars and cafés, as well as 30 national hotel associations.

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Our Supporters

Legal team

Dr. Volker Soyez

is one of Europe’s leading antitrust litigation experts and is spearheading the claim on behalf of Europe’s hotels.

Theodoor Verheij

is a specialist in collective redress, commercial litigation, and corporate and M&A related disputes.

Bas Lem

has extensive experience in disputes involving the calculation of damages, both in regular court and in arbitration.

Dr. Till Schreiber

is the managing director of Cartel Damage Claims (CDC) where he is responsible for managing some of the largest antitrust damage claims across Europe.

Experts

Prof. Maarten Pieter Schinkel

is a renowned economist with vast experience in competition matters and antitrust damage litigation before Dutch and European courts.

Dr. Ulrich Laitenberger

is an Associate Professor and a leading econometrician on competition in digital platform markets, including price parity clauses.

Frequently asked questions

Europe’s hotels are an essential source of Booking.com’s revenue, and the company’s “connected trip” vision depends on hotel data, prices, availability and trust. If hotels see the company as an unfair partner, they have stronger reasons to share less, diversify away from the platform, and back alternatives - at a time when agentic AI is already putting pressure on the Online Travel Agent model.

A collective action is a single legal action encompassing the claims of multiple people or entities who have suffered similar harm or have a common legal issue, rather than each person bringing a separate case.

In this case, the SHCA is pursuing claims of over 15,000 hotels from over 30 countries against Booking.com.

SHCA launched litigation against Booking Holdings, the company that is the ultimate owner of Booking.com, and multiple other European subsidiaries in January 2026.

We have chosen the Amsterdam District Court in The Netherlands – which is where Booking.com’s European headquarters is based.

This collective action is about enforcing compensation for hotels over Booking.com’s use of price parity clauses from 2004 – 2024. These clauses put hotels at an unfair disadvantage and inflicted massive financial harm on them.

To find out more about the unfair use of price parity clauses, visit our Background page.

Over 15,000 have joined this landmark litigation.

The SHCA collective action encompasses claims from over 15,000 hotels from more than 30 countries in Europe. This collective action applies primarily to European hotels, as we are seeking to claim compensation from Booking.com under the general principles of European competition law. However, in September 2026, hotels from Turkiye were invited to join the case.

The answer is up to Booking com.

SHCA will take all measures to support the claims of the hotels we represent, even during a costly and lengthy legal dispute. In the case of a judicial proceeding, we expect this case to be closed in five years at the latest.

The specific damages will be calculated by competition economists based on comparative market models. The estimated total is 30% or more of the total commissions paid by the participating hotels to Booking.com between 2004 and 2024. This equates to several billion euros.

Find out more about the claim