Skift Take
This is might be called Booking Holdings statement of objections to the EC’s statement of objections to the eTraveli deal. This dust-up is heading for the courts.
The European Commission has all but officially blocked Booking Holding's almost 2-year-old pending acquisition of Swedish flight-tech company eTraveli Group, and Booking confidentially sent a memo to national competition authorities detailing why it thinks the commission's arguments are flawed.
Skift obtained the confidential document dated September 8. The commission's official decision on whether to block the acquisition is slated to be made before the end of the month.
“Despite strongly disagreeing with the EC’s case and the selective and misleading use of facts, the Parties submitted an effective and transformational quasi-structural remedy to address the EC’s Theory of Harm,” and then enhanced it based on feedback, the document said.
A spokesperson for the commission declined to co