Appeal against ban on Booking.com rejected by court in Turkey

Reuters - 26 May 2017, Friday

A Turkish court has rejected online travel agent Booking.com's appeal against a ban on its activities, broadcaster NTV and the pro-government Yeni Şafak newspaper reported on Friday.

An Istanbul court banned Booking.com on March 29 for an undisclosed period of time, ruling that the company had violated competition law.

Court officials were not available to comment on Friday.

Turkey's Association of Turkish Travel Agencies had previously made Booking.com pay Turkey's competition authority a fine of more than 2.5 million lira ($700,000) in 2015.

After the March ruling, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority banned access to the Booking.com website which displayed the notice: "Unfortunately it isn't possible to book properties in Turkey from your country right now."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-tourism-booking-idUSKBN18M14I