Competition tips

Australia’s Federal Court has ordered Airbnb to pay about $10 million ($15 million Australian) in penalties after violating consumer protection laws through misleading pricing, said the country’s competition watchdog on Wednesday.

Why pay Google even more to acquire customers when your company can open travel agency storefronts, and counsel customers to book trips online?

His tone was measured, but Judge Leo T. Sorokin made it clear he wasn’t buying the argument from American and JetBlue that their “Northeast Alliance” promoted competition and was good for flyers.

In the past week, the European Commission has issued two separate statements of objections to Google and Booking Holdings over antitrust concerns.

The European Union’s antitrust regulators on Friday warned that Booking Holdings’ planned acquisition of Sweden-based rival ETraveli may strengthen the U.S. company’s position in the market for hotel online travel agencies, and push up costs for hotels.

International travel to the U.S. has not returned to its 2019 peak, though some markets are doing better than others. Germany, for example, likely needs another year to recover, while India should exceed it this year, said Brand USA President and CEO Chris Thompson. None of that, however, will be enough to make up for the loss of China.

The Washington Post reports that U.S. carriers will ask president-elect Donald Trump to protect them from unfair competition with heavily subsidized Persian Gulf carriers. The three big U.S. airlines—Delta, United, and American—”have unsuccessfully lobbied the Obama administration to take up their cause against a trio of Gulf airlines who have grown exponentially, making inroads in the global market,” according to the Post.

Consolidation is the enemy of competition. That’s an axiom of economic theory. And it’s a truth known to any kid who was forced to cut the price of his lemonade when the neighbor opened another lemonade stand across the street.

In what will likely be one of its final major moves under the current Obama administration, the Department of Transportation this week revealed a new set of rules governing various aspects of airline behavior. Here’s how DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx described the new rules:

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