The German Hotel Association supports a class-action lawsuit brought by around 2,000 hotels against Booking.com at the Berlin Regional Court. The suit claims that, since 2004 at the latest, the booking portal has applied best-price clauses with which it prohibited affiliated hotels from offering rooms at lower rates through any other distribution channel. With these clauses, the suit says Booking.com shielded its business model against any competition in violation of antitrust law, which ultimately allowed the company to collect booking commissions of up to 50% of the room rate from hoteliers.