Report about EU-wide screening of websites (“sweep”) of travel comparison and booking websites

Each year, the European Commission in co-operation with national authorities for consumers protection conducts an EU-wide screening of websites (‘sweep’) to assess the extent to which consumer protection laws are respected in certain industries. This year, online travel services and online comparison tools were under scrutiny. The Commission found that on almost one-third of the websites the marketed price was not the final price; in one-fifths of the cases, promotional offers were not really available; in one-third of the cases the total price, or the way it was calculated, was not clear; and in one-fourth of the cases, the websites did not specify that statements about scarcity applied strictly to their own website. The next step is for the national authorities to act on the findings.