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5. Further, the Informant, vide a letter and an email dated 10.12.2018, pointed out to OYO the issues pertaining to its operations, to which, OYO replied stating that the claims and allegations made by the Informant were misguided and misplaced and that they were willing to discuss the issues to find an amicable solution.

6. On 12.12.2018, Kolhapur Hotel Malak Sangh (a member of the Informant) sent a letter to MMT highlighting certain points for consideration, to ensure fair business relationship with all the partner hotels of the Informant. The points inter-alia related to fixation of commission rate for all partner hotels; elimination of Performance Linked Bonus (PLB) or other additional promotional incentives which indirectly add to fixed commission; prohibition of discrimination and offering of heavy discounting on hotel room tariffs over & above fixed commission; remittance of advance payments etc.

10. Further, it is submitted that OYO facilitates and markets budget accommodation on its platform. It has approximately 18,752 hotels registered on its platform across all major cities in India and its market share for supply of rooms priced below Rs. 2000 is 28% and for rooms priced below Rs.1000 is 67% which clearly shows that it has gained a competitive advantage and has secured a position of dominance in the relevant market.

11. It has been alleged that the Opposite Parties charge excessive commissions from the hotel partners and provide deep discounts which have led to the destruction of competitive pricing in the market. MMT-Go have also been alleged to be charging a Performance Linked Bonus (PLB) from hotels i.e. for every ten rooms of a particular hotel booked through their platform, they pay the hotel only for 9 rooms. Thus, the price of the tenth room is in effect part of the commission/brokerage which MMT-Go is otherwise charging from such hotels. Such commission turns out to be around 22-40% (from standalone hotels) which is grossly disproportionate to the commission charged by other OTAs like booking.com and yatra.com which charge a standard 15% commission. This is alleged to be in violation of Section 4 of the Act.

Exorbitant/unfair Commissions:

60. Besides aforesaid issues, the Informant has also raised issues like charging of excessive commission by the Opposite Parties from the hotels. As per clause 1.9 of the agreement entered between MMT-Go and hotels, the commission charged by them to the hotels has to be negotiated. However, as per the submissions of the Informant, MMT-Go are unilaterally imposing exorbitant commission on hotels in the range of 22-40%. Additional charges in the form of volume discounting incentive (VDI), performance link bonus etc. also get added to the commission charges. The Commission notes that the term 'excessive' is ambiguous to the extent that there are no clear standards to determine what price is excessive or fair. As regards the present case, the Informant has alleged that the Opposite Parties charged excessive commission as compared to its competitors. A competitor's price may, however, not be a correct benchmark for ascertaining the price charged by a player. Even otherwise, at this stage the Commission does not find it appropriate to return a finding on this issue especially when the market structure, entry conditions, cost structure of platforms etc. remain to be investigated.