IP/01/230
Brussels, 19 February 2001
Commission clears two joint ventures specialised in
travel services combining Accor Forte and Hilton.
The European Commission has approved the creation of two joint ventures
by the French hotel chain Accor and the British hotel chains Forte and Hilton.
One of the joint ventures (“the front end company”) will be a virtual travel
agency, the other joint venture (“the back end company”) will be an Internet
GDS1 specialised in hotels. The front end company will be an Internet travel
agency with a web site and a booking mechanism. It will be aimed primarily
at SMEs and SOHOs2 and limited to hotel bookings at a firs stage. The first
countries where it will provide its services are the UK, France and Germany
The back end company will develop and operate a GDS, an informatics
system and a data base providing hotel information and connectivity for hotel
booking facilities via Internet. It will allow virtual travel agencies to obtain
information and make hotel reservations through it and hotels will have the
possibility to choose a new GDS specialized in hotels with a more developed
technology than the existing ones.
The operation will lead to horizontal overlaps in the travel agency business sector
between Accor and the front end company. Nevertheless since the latter will be a
new entrant in the market and taking into account that Accor does not hold a
dominant position the operation does not create any competition concern.
As regards vertical effects of the operation, the parent companies, as hotel services
providers, the back-end company as a GDS specialized in hotel information and
reservation and the front-end company, as a travel agency will operate in three
sectors which are vertically integrated. There may only be a risk of foreclosure in the
GDS and travel agency markets if it were shown that the parents have sufficient
market power in the hotel market. Since this is not the case the operation will not
lead to the creation of a dominant position in any of the markets identified.
1
2
Global Distribution System
Small offices, home offices